The Second Demon World Tournament
by CreativePseudonym
Summary: After years of peace Yusuke Urameshi is returning with his friends to Demon World to decide the next king due to the untimely and mysterious death of it's rightful ruler...
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

**I KNOW THIS IS A FAN FICTION SITE BUT HERE'S A DISCLAIMER ANYWAY: I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO THESE CHARACTERS. NONE OF THIS IS CANONICAL CONTENT. I AM MAKING THIS UP AS I GO ALONG USING CHARACTERS ALREADY CREATED. I DO NOT PLAN TO CREATE MY OWN CHARACTERS FOR THIS STORY.**

**This is the first chapter from a new writer. I'm doing this mostly to keep my writing skills sharp and I've watched the YuYu Hakusho series at least ten times because it's such a great series IMO. Maybe when I get acquainted with Hunter X Hunter I'll write a FanFic for that as well. I won't be using any proper Japanese terms like "ningenkai, makai, youki" etc because I'm not acquainted with them enough to be comfortable with using them. So I'm going stick with their English language counterparts. This is an addition I just made recently. It'll give background details of the whole 112 episode original series. **

**Yusuke Urameshi is a delinquent 14 year old. He never goes to school and he was born with a gift for hand to hand combat. He's gained the title of "toughest kid in school" and he is also the target of many thugs in his city. Kazuma Kuwabara is his biggest rival. He constantly attempts to defeat Yusuke but is never successful. One day Yusuke is skipping school when he sees a little boy chase his ball into the street. He gets the ball for the boy and tells him to be careful. Minutes later the same little boy chases his ball into the middle of the street not realizing a car is about to hit him. Yusuke intervenes and saves the boy, being struck and killed by the car. **

**He's then instantly floating in the sky, not knowing that he died and is a ghost. He is greeted by a bubbly young girl with blue hair named Botan, introducing herself as the grim reaper. She tells him that, given his selfish nature, he was not expected to die that day and definitely not committing such a selfless act. He decides that he doesn't care that he's dead because nobody cared he was around anyway. He never knew his father and his mom is a drunk. He changes his mind when he sees all the people crying at his wake including his mother and Kuwabara who screams that he can't be dead because it's their destiny to fight every day. Yusuke also has a girlfriend/best friend that can't stand the sight of his body lying lifeless in his bed.**

**He's then visited by Koenma, the prince of the spirit world, the world between heaven and hell that decides your fate. Koenma's appearance is as a baby with a pacifier always in his mouth which Yusuke mocks at every given chance. Koenma tells him that he can return to life if he accepts a task. The task is that he'd act as a spirit detective under Koenma. He'd investigate illegal demon activity in the living world and eliminate or escort the demons back to the demon world. Yusuke accepts and he has to get someone that cares about him to kiss him to bring him back to life. He tries to contact Kuwabara but he just shakes it off as a weird dream. However, Keiko believes the dream and rushes to Yusuke's house to bring him back to life. Without her knowing, some kids that fought and lost to Yusuke set his house on fire with Keiko inside. Yusuke had been gaining energy over the past few days to return back to life. He sacrificed the energy to clear a path for Keiko to get out of the house. His body is saved and he returns to life.**

**He's then accused of stealing multiple personal items from other students when he starts going back to school. When he attempts to attack the teacher accusing him, Koenma freezes time and instructs Yusuke that if he wants to get back at the teacher, he should focus his energy into his index finger and fire it like a gun by pulling the trigger in his mind. This gives Yusuke the use of his spirit gun.**

**(Skipping ahead because this background is getting bloated)**

**Long story short: Yusuke fights Hiei, a three eyed demon, helps a demon named Kurama save his human mother, and kills a demon named Goki by shooting a spirit gun bullet into his mouth because his skin was so hard he couldn't hurt him with punches. The three demons stole special artifacts from spirit world's vaults. **

**Yusuke and Kuwabara fight in a tournament hosted by Genkai, an aging female fighter wanting to pass on her special technique called the spirit wave. Yusuke is sent there to find a demon named Rando who kills and steals fighters' techniques. Yusuke ends up meeting Kuwabara at the tournament. When they get to the one on one fights, Yusuke barely wins his fights due to being inexperienced with spirit energy and Kuwabara learns to manifest a sword with his spirit energy. Yusuke ends up finding and killing Rando, winning the prize of becoming Genkai's student. In the three months Yusuke trains with Genkai, he increases his spirit energy reserves and learns how to fire the spirit shotgun, which is exactly as it sounds. Instead of shooting one bullet he shoots a spray of bullets from his fist. **

**The world is under attack by what are called the Makai insects because the 4 saint beasts want the wall between their city and the human world taken down. Yusuke and Kuwabara go to their city and end up meeting Kurama and Hiei who join their team. They enter the castle and defeat all of the saint beasts. Yusuke beats the leader by using life energy which almost kills him.**

**Later, Koenma learns that an ice demon named Yukina is being held by a wealthy black market dealer named Tarukine, harvesting the stones she creates with her tears, worth millions, by torturing her. He sends Yusuke, Botan, and Kuwabara (who after seeing a picture of Yukina falls in love with her) to rescue her. Unbeknownst to Kuwabara because he left before Koenma's message was finished, Hiei is revealed as Yukina's brother. They rescue Yukina after fighting the toguro brothers. The elder Toguro can regenerate body parts and heal himself and younger toguro can increase the strength his muscles output by focusing his demon energy into them. Yusuke and Kuwabara work together for Kuwabara to stab younger toguro in the chest with his spirit sword. They all leave thinking he's dead but monitoring by Koenma shows that the Toguros threw the fight so their employer, Sakyo, could win Tarukine's massive fortune.**

**Yusuke later finds out that Toguro wasn't killed and Toguro tells him that he'd be a "special guest" at the dark tournament. The special guests are required to participate in the dark tournament and will be killed if they don't accept their invitation. Yusuke goes back to Genkai to train again and Kuwabara trains with Hiei and Kurama. They need 5 fighters to enter the dark tournament so Yusuke finds a fighter, whose face is wrapped up with only their eye showing, not knowing their true identity. They refer to this fighter as the Masked Fighter in the series.**

**blah blah blah etc. etc.**

**The masked fighter is revealed to be Genkai whom transfers all of her powers to Yusuke via the spirit orb that she's created over her lifetime and has planned to pass on to a worthy apprentice from the beginning. Yusuke gets to the final round to fight Younger Toguro again and is unable to access the powers given to him by Genkai who was killed by younger toguro (genkai and younger toguro were teammates in the last dark tournament. Toguro ran a dojo where his students were killed by a demon that he killed in the final round of the last tournament 50 years ago. Genkai requested never to be bothered again by the tournament committee but is revealed to be the masked fighter toward the middle of the tournament before she was killed by younger Toguro). Because Yusuke is unable to access all of his power younger Toguro decides that he needs persuasion and proceeds to kill Kuwabara. After Yusuke defeats Toguro it is revealed that Toguro missed Kuwabara's vitals on purpose, not intending to kill him. Younger Toguro had kicked his older brother out of the arena after Elder Toguro began speaking ill of his younger brother and Genkai. Sakyo's ultimate plan was to take the winnings from the dark tournament and open a hole to demon world. This plan failed when Toguro lost, and Sakyo being a gambler, had bet his life on Toguro to win. He informs Koenma that because he's an egomaniac he won't let his plan continue without him. Before the team leaves the island the tournament was held on, Koenma brings Genkai back to life.**

**About six months later a human finds Elder Toguro's broken body at the edge of a cliff. This man is Sensui. He was a sprit detective like Yusuke but was much more intelligent, less of a delinquent, and had a very black and white view of the world. He went crazy when he was sent on a case to stop a group of wealthy humans (the same group Tarukine belonged to) from opening a hole to demon world. That's when Sensui lost his mind. He had believed that demons were evil and should be killed and humans are good and should be saved. He saw those humans torturing demons as they came out of the hole and lost his mind, killing all of the humans in the room and disappeared with a tape called chapter black. Chapter black is a video of all of mankind's worst crimes in history (the crusades, the holocaust etc.) **

**Some kind of unimportant stuff happens etc.**

**Yusuke meets Sensui in a cave where one of his partners has opened the hole to demon world wide enough to where it could stabilize and continue to grow itself. Yusuke fights Sensui and realizes, while beating the hell out of Sensui, that he has a look in his eyes like he's still in control. Itsuki, the one who opened the tunnel, explains that when Sensui lost his mind, it fragmented into 7 personalities, keeping the real Sensui personality pure while the others committed murder, lied to people who died in the process of his plan etc. (committing all 7 deadly sins blah blah blah). Koenma attempts to trap Sensui behind the Kekai barrier, a net which keeps the most powerful demons out of the human world, with his spell created by his pacifier which has been gathering his energy for centuries for such an occasion. Realizing he can't win, Yusuke does what Kuwabara did for him, sacrificing himself so that Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei can escape from the alternate dimension that they've been stuck in during the fight. Hiei launches an attack which just pushes back Sensui through the barrier because he's not a demon. Kuwabara, having gained a new power to cut through dimensions (which he used to escape the dimension that they were watching the fight from) cuts through the barrier and they follow Sensui to the demon world. Yusuke is then resurrected due to an atavism (a genetic mutation where a person reverts back to a state similar to that of their ancestors). He learns he's a demon and follows everyone to the demon world. Yusuke fights Sensui alone with his new demon powers but is unable to get a grip on his new powers. When he attempts to attack Sensui, a voice enters his head and he transforms into a version of his ancestral father, Raizen. He's covered in tattoos and grows long, silvery grey hair. He kills Sensui but is informed by Itsuki that he only had 15 days to live anyway due to a rare fatal disease. **

**Yusuke struggles to deal with his new powers, personality, and discovered lineage. Koenma tells him that because of his atavism (making him a mazoku, an ancient powerful race of demon world) he must leave earth or his father, King Emma, will have him killed. Yusuke is greeted by three demons claiming to have been sent by Raizen. He goes to demon world to speak to his forefather who has been avoiding eating humans for sustenance for thousands of years causing his stomach to growl so loud it reaches every inch of the demon world. Yusuke trains until he can beat Raizen. Raizen dies before he gets the chance. Raizen is what's called an S class demon, the most powerful and intelligent class of demon in demon world. There are also two other kings, Makuro and Yomi. Makuro drafts Hiei as her general and Yomi calls upon Kurama. Kurama is revealed as an old friend of Yomi's when they were both thieves. **

**To avoid a war, Yusuke proposes that they hold a tournament to determine the new king. The tournament would be held every 3 years to determine the new ruler of demon world. Yusuke fights Yomi and loses but because Yomi is so weak after their fight he loses before the finals. A friend of Raizen's, named Enki, ends up winning the tournament. He proclaims that the next tournament would be in three years and that the only law everyone would have to follow is that no demons would be allowed to enter the human world to cause trouble. **

**Before Yusuke left for demon world he promised he'd be back on Earth by his 18th birthday, which he kept his promise. Hiei was given the task of finding humans who accidentally found their way into demon world and Kurama returned to Earth to be with his newly wedded human mother (why she's human isn't terribly important for those that already know the story. If you'd like clarification, I'll add it in).**

**So there it is the whole 112 episodes in a nutshell. My story is about the second demon world tournament. Enki, the one who won the first tournament is killed, and now a war is possible between Yusuke, Makuro, and Yomi unless they agree to hold a second tournament.**

**Here's some background on where my story will be going…**

Yusuke Urameshi is now 21 years old. He returned from Demon World when he turned 18 as he'd promised Keiko, his long time best friend and girlfriend. He finally understands where he came from, after years of having a drunk of a Mom and no idea who his Dad was, and now lives a normal life back on Earth with Keiko. He runs his own restaurant, in the spirit of Keiko's Dad, who passed away unexpectedly shortly after his return to Earth. Every once in awhile, he secretly takes assignments looking into apparitions crossing planes from Demon world to Earth. The majority of the time, it's just Demons looking for fighting advice or an autograph from the newest of the three kings due to Yusuke's ancestor, Raizen, having passed away several years earlier.

It has been three years since he last had to use his spirit gun, or his spirit energy for that matter. But now he is about to discover that the peace he left in Demon World is no more...

Chapter 1

Koenma appeared out of nowhere, as he usually did, as Yusuke finished closing his restaurant. He floated there with a disgruntled look on his face and stayed silent.

"Anything I can help you with pacifier boy?" Yusuke asked annoyed.

Koenma took a deep breath and explained the situation.

"It seems that your success in creating peace in Demon world was short lived. I've received intel from my best ogre stating that one of the other two leaders is no longer willing to hold their end of the peace treaty. Though this shouldn't matter due to the agreement made at the start of the original Demon World Tournament, Engki, the rightful ruler of Demon World because of his victory in the first tournament, being dead makes it a problem." Koenma spoke in sharp, forceful voice.

Yusuke's eyes widened, as he leaned forward to hear more about what was happening.

"Yusuke, I am unable to appoint you spirit detective because of your Mazoku blood and the bounty placed on your head by my father, King Enma, but I'm going against my better judgment to contract you as a mercenary for this mission."

Yusuke took a step back in shock.

"Woah woah, hold on a second. You told me I was de-commissioned as spirit detective way before I even came up with the idea for the first tournament. How can you hire me as a mercenary but not actually hire me again? Isn't that pretty much the same idea?"

Koenma folded his arms as he lost himself in thought.

"You would think that but the laws put in place by my father appointing me as ruler while he is away gives me emergency powers if I believe that a disaster is imminent from the developing information my ogre has been giving me. So yes you are hired again, but not really. I'm interpreting the law as I see fit because of how broadly it was written. Yusuke please, enough with the questions already. I can do it because I'm supreme ruler of Spirit World, so there." Koenma said annoyingly.

"I see you haven't matured much in three years" Yusuke said sarcastically.

"Oh shut up and wait for Botan when you get home. I'm commissioning her as your assistant again because you two worked so well together before."

"Sounds like fun, but I've got plans with Keiko. Why don't you pop back up in a week or so when I've had time to think it over?"

Koenma's face turned bright red.

"You may be 21 but you're still a smart-ass child. Just shut up and wait for Botan. She should be there in an hour."

Koenma disappeared and Yusuke made his way home. He frantically combed over the information he was just given and couldn't believe he was actually going back to work as a Spirit Detective.

**Sorry, short chapter. Leave me reviews so I know you're at least showing interest. Hope you like it so far.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Only one review but here's something that may pique your interest a little bit more.**

**Last chapter: **_Koenma disappeared and Yusuke made his way home. He frantically combed over the information he was just given and couldn't believe he was actually going back to work as a Spirit Detective._

**45 minutes after Yusuke and Koenma's conversation, at Yusuke and Keiko's house...**

"Why are you home so late?" Keiko asked concerned.

Yusuke stared at the floor having not really heard what she asked, he gave her a blank look. She was really worried now.

"Yusuke, what's going on? You have to tell me. The silence is really starting to worry me, you're never this quiet after leaving work." She asked again, almost in tears now.

"Ok, ok. Calm down Keiko. Sorry to worry. you. i have some interesting news that i'm not sure you're going to believe because I still don't believe it yet."

Keiko looked on in curiosity, her eyes starting to well up with tears.

"Geez Keiko. No need to break down crying. I'm not dying or anything. It's just, I got a visit from Koenma. It looks like you may need to run the restaurant for a little while." Yusuke in a wavering voice.

"Why, what do you mean? Why did Koenma speak to you today." She asked still not sure what was going on.

"It looks like I'm going back to being a spirit detective. Koenma told me Enki, the guy that I told you won the Demon world tournament that I organized to try to forge a little peace, well he's...dead." Yusuke own words made him tremble.

"What happened to him? I thought everything was fine. There was a king to rule all three territories and there wasn't going to be a war because of it. Does Koenma know who did it?"

"No he doesn't. I guess that's why he's taking the chance on me to figure it out and also most likely compete in the next tournament."

"Next tournament! I thought your responsibilities there were gone for good because you didn't have your own territory to rule." Now Keiko began to cry in fear of losing him.

"Hey calm down. I'm going to talk to Botan in about 15 minutes.

"Is she going to be helping you like she did before you were fired?" Keiko asked quietly.

Yusuke looked annoyed.

"Yes she is. But remember, I wasn't fired because I sucked at the job. He fired me because I have demon blood, Mazoku blood. The Mazoku were the most feared in all of Demon world." Yusuke said in an irritated voice.

"Oh yeah, I remember you mentioning that. But you still ache in pain when I slap you in the face like before." Keiko laughed.

"Bingo." Botan said as she floated on her oar through the open window in the room where Yusuke and Keiko were talking.

"Can't you come up with another catchphrase. I feel like I'm sitting in a big, cold room with a bunch of old people hoping to win some money whenever you say that." Yusuke yelled.

"Well excuse me. Somebody's in a bad mood tonight. I suppose it is hard to stay even tempered when you've had all that spirit energy going to waste for three years." Botan laughed,

"Yeah well, in times of peace there's no need for spirit guns, shotguns, spirit waves, or jumping from D class to S class in just three years because I've got anger management issues." Yusuke said sarcastically.

"Anger management is right. You still get so irritated whenever you get criticised." Botan pointed out forcefully.

"Anyway, I can open a portal in here, though it may get messy from the vortex it'll create, or I can open it outside to avoid having the good china crash to the floor" Botan laughed, and Keiko chuckled a little.

"Woah hold on. Don't I get some breathing time between learning the friend of my ancestral forefather and former king of Demon world is dead?" Yusuke threw his arms up in disapproval.

"Unfortunately not Yusuke. This is very urgent. Hiei and Kurama have already been called by Mukuro and Yomi respectively to determine the next course of action. You are rightfully the king of Raizen's territory so you should make your way there to assemble your army to be on the safe side." Botan said seriously.

"Hey don't forget about me Urameshi!" said Kuwabara as he barged into the house.

Yusuke shook angrily in annoyance.

"What do you mean what about you, ? Don't you have an equation to balance or something." Yusuke said jokingly.

Kuwabara's face turned an angry red.

"Don't be mad at me because you decided to slack off and be a king somewhere Urameshi. It just so happens that I'm my _own _boss, if you should know. And I've also taken the time when I'm not working to develop some new attacks. You got any new tricks Urameshi? Besides putting noodles in boiling water for the screaming customers that is, haha." Kuwabara mocked.

"It just so happens I learned how to shoot my spirit gun out of a much more flexible finger, so buzz off." Yusuke flexed his middle finger up and down.

"Hey that's not cool Urameshi I was only joking. So what's this I hear about another Demon world tournament? I thought that wasn't for a few more months." Kuwabara asked confused.

"Well, it doesn't help that the guy that won last time is dead, so they had to move the schedule up. I'm on my way to Demon world now if you wanted to join me. It's been awhile since you've seen Demon world hasn't it? I think Sensui was the reason for your first and last trip there." Yusuke said in a cocky voice.

Kuwabara shivered.

"I don't think I ever want to hear you mention that guy again, Urameshi. He was so powerful. Sometimes I still have nightmares about going down there. Seeing your body on the ground, lifeless. I sure showed him though, with a little help from Kurama and Hiei of course." Kuwabara said embarrassed.

"A little help, from what I remember, Sensui kicked your ass, and as usual, Kurama, Hiei and I had to come bail you out." Yusuke joked

A beeping sound was heard coming out of Botan's kimono. It was the communication mirror.

"Botan here. How can I help you Koenma?" Botan asked playfully.

"Botan, this is no time to joke. I've just been given word that a full scale war is about to break out down there. Grab Yusuke and get him there _now_!" Koenma yelled.

"Yes, sir. Sorry for the delay. We're on our way there now." Botan said seriously.

They made their way into the front yard. Yusuke and Keiko made a lot of money from their business but decided a modest sized home and plenty in savings was best. They had an older style house with a large front and back yard. Plenty of room for opening a portal to another world of course. Botan focused her energy and drew a line in the air which then forcefully opened into what seemed like an endless black hole.

"So are you coming with us Kuwabara. Or would you rather sit this one out." Yusuke asked in a determined tone.

"I'm ready for anything. Check this out." Kuwabara said excitedly.

Kuwabara extended his fingers as electricity gathered between them, sweat dripped from his forehead, proving that he hadn't done this many times as it required great focus and concentration. Suddenly rings began to form around Kuwabara's fingers and came together again at his palm. Spikes began to form on the top of each ring.

"Kuwabara what the hell are those" Yusuke laughed.

Kuwabara shook angrily.

"They're one of my new tricks, spiked brass knuckles made of spirit energy. Sure to pack a much more powerful punch when I get in the ring." Kuwabara cheered.

Yusuke fell over in laughter.

"This is the best you've got? All that build up and you produce this cheap trick? I thought you were going to shoot spirit energy out of your mouth, or turn your hand into a knife or something. This is ridiculous." Yusuke laughed harder and yelled in joyful agony from laughing so hard.

"Oh shut up, Urameshi. Let's see you do a new trick. I can sense that the same old stuff isn't going to cut it in this tournament." Kuwabara said seriously.

Yusuke furrowed his brow in concentration.

"Let's wait until we get down there. I'm expecting a welcome party I don't want." Yusuke said.

"Are you ready to go boys, is play time over?" Botan asked annoyed.

"Let's do it." Yusuke said excited.

Keiko hugged Yusuke and took a step back.

"Alright boys, here we go. Remember, it may look dark, but that's only because you're going to be falling for awhile. Just remember to land on your feet." Botan said.

Botan gave one last push of her energy to clear any obstacles that may have been obstructing their path on the way down. Yusuke and Kuwabara nodded in agreement, and jumped in to the vast blackness of the portal.

**Ok so there it is. Hopefully it keeps you wanting more. Only got one review on the last chapter so I was kind of on the edge about writing another one or not. But I'm glad I did. I'm actually more excited to keep writing. Let me know what you think in the reviews.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**I'm welcoming all reviews. Don't be shy. I take criticism very well and I'm hoping I get some soon or this story won't last much longer. Please give me some reviews after this chapter whether they're praise or criticism, I still need and want them.**

**Last Chapter:** Botan gave one last push of her energy to clear any obstacles that may have been obstructing their path on the way down. Yusuke and Kuwabara nodded in agreement, and jumped in to the vast blackness of the portal.

Yusuke and Kuwabara fell for what seemed like forever. The wind was hard to stand as they fell faster and the air escaped out of the hole Botan had opened. As they began their final descent and could see the ground, their skin began to crawl.

"Urameshi what is that? It smells like death and despair, like there's no hope left in the world." Kuwabara said, shaking as he fell.

"Yeah what did you expect Kuwabara, we're falling into hell. Didn't you ever go to church as a kid? There's nothing more than fire and brimstone according to the geniuses in the white cloaks with all the answers, but this seems pretty tame."

"What are we going to do when we start getting closer to the ground? Last time we were on our way down here, Kurama sprouted a flower out of his back to slow the fall and held me and Hiei until we got to a safe distance to drop."

"Well I've got a hell of a lot of spirit energy. I could just shoot a blast small enough that'll slow my progression toward the ground. And what are you worried about? You can materialize a pole vault out of thin air. I thought you were supposed to be smart." Yusuke joked.

"It's not funny Urameshi. I've got a really bad feeling about this. It's cold. And the wind hasn't stopped blowing since we jumped down that hole. The warmth of this wind isn't natural. It feels like it's eating away at my skin. I'm not a fighter anymore Urameshi, but I'm still a man. And no matter what, I'll follow you wherever this free fall takes us." Kuwabara spoke valiantly.

Kuwabara held out his hands and an orange sphere formed between them. Kuwabara let out a loud roar.

"SPIRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT SWORD!" he yelled.

As the sword formed in his hands he realized he was only about three thousand feet from the ground.

"Oh, man. I didn't realize we were falling _that _fast. SWORD GET LONGER!" Kuwabara let out another roar.

His spirit sword extended until it hit the dusty floor of hell. He slid slowly down as he watched Yusuke prepare his spirit gun.

"Swords are for wimps. Let me show you how a real man does it." Yusuke mocked.

Yusuke placed his left hand over his right hand and extended his right index finger. A blue light formed at the end of his finger, signifying that he was storing the energy for the blast. Yusuke smirked as he let out his own roar.

"SPIRIT GUN!" Yusuke yelled.

The blue blast was just powerful enough to slow his fall until he landed on the ground. Kuwabara followed as he slid down his elongated sword like a firehouse pole. They both looked around in amazement at the vast emptiness of the demon plains. They saw nothing but miles of dirt, dust, and a few mountain ranges. Everything was covered in a red hue. The air tasted like illness and misery. Yusuke looked around carefully for any signs of demons that had been waiting for them. It was quiet. Yusuke was shocked and Kuwabara scratched his head in confusion. Where was the war?

"Well this is highly unexpected. I thought for sure we'd be in the middle of a free-for-all by the time we got down here, but there's not a soul around. I guess the only thing we can do is start running." Yusuke thought out loud.

"Start running? What do you mean running? What are we running from?" Kuwabara asked.

"We're not running _from _anything, it's where we're running to. We're at least two hundred fifty miles from the palace. We don't have anywhere else we can go and I left my pal Hokushin in charge while I was away." Yusuke spoke calmly.

"How do you know there's still a palace? Koenma said war was going to break out before we jumped down the hole. How do we know something didn't already happen?" Kuwabara asked frantically.

"We were only falling for an hour, how could one army have taken out two armies in an hour. That doesn't make any sense. And the other two rulers of the other territories are the only S class demons in each territory for a reason. They don't want an uprising and even five hundred A class demons couldn't take out one of them. Though it is very odd we're still standing here talking and haven't seen or heard anything." Yusuke held his chin in his hand as he spoke.

"Well, let's start running. I bet I'll beat you there Urameshi." Kuwabara laughed and took off.

Yusuke shook his head in annoyance.

"Are you stupid? Do you even know what direction you're supposed to be going?" Yusuke yelled.

Kuwabara slid to a halt.

"You've got a good point Urameshi. You lead the way. No need to make this a contest." Kuwabara said innocently.

Yusuke ran up as far Kuwabara had gone and point east, the direction they need to go. The wind had picked up and the unnatural heat became thicker, almost suffocating. They started running east as fast as they could. Kuwabara being unnaturally fast and strong for a human, and Yusuke being a demon, it didn't take them long to go two hundred fifty miles. They made it to the palace, which was still standing. Kuwabara gasped at the size of it. Even if he owned the company he worked for, he would never have a place as big as this. It was like something out of a text book in its structure. It had one large tower, a moat, and a large drawbridge to get inside. The outside was gray and dark purple with hints of red. Yusuke had Raizen's name written on the side of the drawbridge that visitors would see in memory of his forefather. Yusuke sighed and took a moment of silence. It wasn't long ago that he was scaling that tower for a chance to fight Raizen every day he was there after training with Hokushin and his soldiers. Yusuke didn't even get a chance to beat Raizen before he died of hunger after thousands of years of not eating humans for sustenance. Raizen couldn't bring himself to do it after falling in love with the human woman that started Yusuke's bloodline. The genetic atavism is what gave Yusuke his Mazoku blood and Raizen-inspired demon form.

"You bastard" Yusuke said to himself.

"Something wrong Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked.

"No. It's nothing. Let's go inside. I hope they have a feast waiting for us.

Instead of waiting for someone to drop the drawbridge they jumped over the large wall. It was very quiet when they landed on the other side. Yusuke was worried until he heard Hokushin's voice.

"My lord, you have returned." Hokushin called joyfully.

"That's right Hokushin, your almighty ruler is back." Yusuke joked.

Kuwabara stood to the side, annoyed that Yusuke hadn't introduced him yet.

"Hey, I'm still here Urameshi!" Kuwabara called.

"Oh yeah, this is my doormat, Kazuma Kuwabara." Yusuke introduced.

"It's very nice to meet you. And I can sense great strength. You must have seen a lot in your short life to be so strong. You must be the equivalent of a demon A class. But…you're human." Hokushin spoke in curiosity.

"Yeah that's right, I'm cool. It's not easy being me. I made a lot of sacrifices for Urameshi when we were teenagers. No joke. I gave my life so this woos could learn how to be emotional. But we can talk about that later, I'm digging the castle." Kuwabara spoke invitingly.

"I wish there were cause for celebration. But my lord, we must mobilize. There has been no contact with Makuro or Yomi. Have you spoken with their generals?" Hokushin asked.

"No unfortunately not. We were literally pushed down a hole without any time to plan ahead. I think what I need to do is find a way to arrange a meeting with Kurama and Hiei. Only they would know what their bosses are thinking. But how am I supposed to do that? You don't have phones down here. Maybe I should just go to their kingdoms one at a time and have a talk." Yusuke thought out loud.

"That would be very unwise. Who knows what kind of action they'd take to the king of this territory walking up to their front door. It's suicide. And we don't know how Enki was murdered or who the murderer is. These are all things we should take into consideration before moving further."

Suddenly, a large blue light shot up in the sky. Yusuke thought maybe it was just a military drill and went back to planning in his head. Without warning the blue light came back down and landed right outside the door to the palace.

"I'd say that's cause for concern. Hokushin, stay here and make sure nobody was hurt outside of the palace. Kuwabara, come with me to Makuro's territory. I have a feeling I'll need your help on the way there." Yusuke said in a sharp voice.

"Let's do it. I'm not scared of demons, A class, S class, whatever. I'm ready to help." Kuwabara said excitedly.

They both watched the drawbridge fall and began their trek to Makuro's territory, unaware of what they'd find on the way.

**Cliff hanger because it's getting late and there aren't enough reviews to motivate me. Send the reviews and you'll get more chapters. I promise the action is about to start. One thing I really want to concentrate on is the action in this story. A few stories I've read have a lot of exposition and a good idea behind it, but nothing ever happens. If you give me reviews I swear it'll be worth your while. Thanks a lot.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**Only three reviews. I know there are more than three people on this site. Help the new guy out. I need some motivation at ten o' clock at night. Here's another chapter. If I really don't get anything before the weekend, I'm going to have to give up on this story. Hope this gets you a little more interested.**

At the same speed they raced to Yusuke's palace, they headed north to Makuro's kingdom. Makuro was an average height woman missing an eye. A life of slavery had made her cold and devoid of emotion. She'd lost her left eye and had become appalled with her appearance. She frequently presented herself wrapped up like a mummy of ancient Egypt showing only her good eye through the bandages. She was instrumental in the agreement to have a tournament every few years to decide the new ruler. With Raizen gone and Yomi unwilling to allow his plans for unity of the territories to go unrealized, Makuro sided with Yusuke in his decision, tipping the balance of power in Yusuke and Makuro's favor. This forced Yomi to play by Yusuke's rules.

"Urameshi what the hell is that?" Kuwabara yelled as he saw a wall of shadowy figures approaching them.

"Oh damn, Kuwabara get ready, this is the fashionably late welcome party we should've had to deal with when we landed." Yusuke yelled

Kuwabara held his hands out in the same fashion as when he was falling to hell's floor.

"SPIRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT SWORD!" He yelled

The demons attacked swiftly as Kuwabara ran through them, slicing each one as he ran past with no problem. Then came the big guy.

Yusuke slid to a halt, almost falling forward on his face.

"Oh man, I've never seen one of these guys before." Yusuke said shocked.

The demon stood seven feet tall, shoulders as large as the barrel of tank turret gun. Veins pulsed violently from his musculature. He was preparing.

"So you're the two little flies that came into my home. What is it you hope to accomplish?" the demon asked.

"We hope to accomplish kicking your ass in a timely fashion so we can straighten things out with Makuro and Yomi before this war starts." Yusuke shot back.

"And what makes you think you'll be able to walk away from here in one piece? The demon asked snidely.

Yusuke clenched his teeth.

"Let me show you. Stand still and close your eyes. It'll only hurt for a moment." Yusuke growled angrily.

He placed his left hand over his right hand and extended his right index finger. The blue glow at the end grew larger as he concentrated.

"You pathetic child. Your story is legend. What's happened to you these three years? You've become as soft as a human." The demon spoke in disgust

"I'D HATE TO BREAK IT TO YOU BITCH, BUT I STILL AM HUMAN…SPIRIT GUN!" Yusuke roared.

The blast was atomic. The demon's eyes widened in shock. But it was just a ploy. The demon threw his fist straight at the center of the blast and held it back. He lifted the blast straight up and sent it flying in to the air. Yusuke froze.

"AH! What the hell? That blast could've taken out a city!" Yusuke yelled.

"My turn Urameshi, stand back!" Kuwabara yelled.

Yusuke turned in confusion as he watched Kuwabara take a stance he'd only seen once at the Dark Tournament. Kuwabara turned both hands into fists and brought them to his side, his thumbs facing up. He raised his arms over his and opened his hands. An orange sphere formed in each hand.

"DOUBLE SPIRIT SWORD!" Kuwabara yelled.

Kuwabara leapt at the demon slicing vertically with one sword and horizontally with the other trying to cut the demon in two places. He was too fast for Kuwabara. Years of a normal life had made Kuwabara slow. He had no chance.

"Pathetic human. Go back to your doomed world. The weaker humans won't be able to defend themselves." The demon threw a hard right into Kuwabara's rib cage. He made contact, so he thought.

"Let me know how this feels." Kuwabara had caught the demon's fist before it hit his rib cage. Kuwabara rotated both his wrists toward the demon's wrists and sliced off his hands. The demon roared in pain.

"You bastard!" the demon screamed.

"Hit him now Urameshi!" Kuwabara ordered.

Yusuke nodded and pulled his right fist to his side. His entire fist glowed blue.

"SHOTGUN!" Yusuke let out a roar and thousands of tiny spirit bullets sprayed toward the demon. Every one of them made contact. The demon's stomach was sliced open and he bled all over the red, dusty ground. He attempted to pick himself up but there was no strength left. He opened his mouth.

"So what, you're going to talk us to death since you can't fight us?" Yusuke asked sarcastically.

The demon smiled.

"This is what I was hoping would happen. I hope you've got a second round in you." The demon laughed.

An egg popped out of the demon's mouth and began to pulse with orange energy. The shell began to crack and a high pitched whistle, the sound of demon energy being released from the egg, escaped and filled the plains they were standing in. Something bad had just happened.

"What did we do Urameshi?" Kuwabara shook.

"Damn it" Yusuke whispered.

**Another cliff hanger. Hope that action pumped you up for another chapter. The more reviews I get, the faster I'll update. And that's not an empty promise. I want to know what's good and bad so I know how to shape my story. Thanks.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**I've only got four reviews. Tonight I'm going to try to pump out two chapters if possible. I had an epiphany earlier that I've been focusing on just the perspectives of Kuwabara and Yusuke so the next chapter will be from someone else's (someone that hasn't been in the story yet) perspective. Hopefully it'll work out the way I want. Please leave reviews. Thank you to those showing interest by adding me to your favorite stories/authors.**

**Last Chapter: "What did we do Urameshi?" Kuwabara shook.**

"**Damn it" Yusuke whispered.**

A body emerged from the egg. It began to grow and suddenly, two pieces broke off from the first body. It was multiplying.

"Urameshi, hit 'em now before it's too late!" Kuwabara screamed.

"With what, genius? I don't have any spirit energy left." Yusuke snapped.

"What do you mean you don't have any energy left? You've only fired two spirit guns and a shotgun!" Kuwabara shook.

"Yeah, well, maybe I shouldn't have taken so much time off. I feel really weak right now. You're going to have to take this one. Give me five minutes and I should be alright." Yusuke's voice became softer as he spoke.

"Five minutes. Oh, man. This sucks. Why is it always me?" Kuwabara complained.

"Ok let's see if I can get this to work. I don't' remember how I did it last time" Kuwabara spoke softly to himself.

Kuwabara closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could. A violent orange aura flared up around his body. His hands began to glow with a red and orange light. Yusuke couldn't recall how he recognized this.

"Kuwabara what the hell are you doing? There are at least ten of them now!" Yusuke yelled.

"Shut up Urameshi, I'm trying to concentrate. You'll recognize this when I'm ready." Kuwabara shot back.

The demons had stopped multiplying at fourteen, they could sense that Kuwabara's energy was growing. Kuwabara took a step forward and clenched his fists.

"Alright you little freaks try dodging this! SPIRIT DAGGER SPREAD!" Kuwabara opened his palms and pushed them forward in a thrusting motion. Thousands of sharp, tiny knives shot from his hands slicing up the mini demons into pieces. Only one remained.

"And here's the fatality blow!" Kuwabara charged toward the last demon and threw his right arm back with another orange glow in the palm of his hand."

"SPIRIT GRENADE!" Kuwabara shouted and tossed an orange sphere at the last demon.

The sphere rolled to a stop as the demon covered itself with its claws, bracing for the explosion.

Nothing happened.

"Ah, what the heck! I've this before with no problem where's the…"

A loud bang could be heard from Yusuke's and Makuro's palace. As the dust settled, Yusuke rose to his feet. Five minutes had passed and he felt like-new. Kuwabara fell into a cross legged seated position. Now he had become exhausted. All that remained were the claws of the last demon. Kuwabara sighed as Yusuke gazed at him in amazement. He'd have to make sure he never made fun of Kuwabara again. He may have gotten slower but he definitely produced a much bigger bang with his energy.

"Phew. How'd you like that Urameshi. Not bad for being a smart guy, huh?" Kuwabara bragged.

"Yeah, ok, at least you're still ugly." Yusuke mocked.

"Screw you Urameshi. You wouldn't even be standing here if it weren't for me." Kuwabara spoke angrily.

"Kuwabara…thank you." Yusuke spoke genuinely.

"Uh, you're welcome?" Kuwabara replied confused.

"Let's get the hell outta here. I'm not in the mood for another fight until my energy comes back. I should've visited Genkai so she could put another set of spirit cuffs on me. Damn it." Yusuke spoke out loud angrily.

Dimwit, spirit cuffs can no longer help you. You need to bring the power out yourself. It's still there, you just need to find it again. Genkai spoke through thought to Yusuke.

Hey you old hag, why the hell are you in my head? Yusuke asked annoyed.

I'll always be in your head because you can never do anything yourself slacker. You always need someone else to push you in the right direction and with that handicap you will never be as great as you could be. Now shut up about not being able use your energy like you used to and get to Makuro's. Koenma called me in, I guess he doesn't trust you to get this done on your own. Genkai spoke forcefully.

Yeah yeah, leave me alone you old bitch. I'll figure it out as I go along like usual. Why don't you get back to your knitting and I'll give you a call if I need a sweater.

Damn slacker. Genkai said, annoyed.

"So now what, Urameshi?" Kuwabara asked.

"We're not far now. Let's get a move on. It's getting dark and demon world isn't some place you want to be at night." Yusuke said.

They started running again. Yusuke's energy was returning faster than before. The feeling of determination circulated through his body. He needed to figure out what happened to Enki. He needed to find out what was going on with Makuro and Yomi. Regardless of the circumstances, he couldn't wait to see Kurama and Hiei after all this time.

**Two chapters won't happen tonight. I'm too tired at this point and I'm not motivated enough by the few readers I have. Let me know what you think as soon as you think it and I guarantee a new chapter will be up a lot sooner. Thanks.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**Last Chapter: "We're not far now. Let's get a move on. It's getting dark and demon world isn't some place you want to be at night." Yusuke said.**

**They started running again. Yusuke's energy was returning faster than before. The feeling of determination circulated through his body. He needed to figure out what happened to Enki. He needed to find out what was going on with Makuro and Yomi. Regardless of the circumstances, he couldn't wait to see Kurama and Hiei after all this time.**

**_At Makuro's Palace…_**

Makuro stood at the window of her palace gazing across the demon plain. She could sense Yusuke and Kuwabara approaching. Hiei stood beside her, as he always did as her general. Hiei was given the task of finding humans who stumbled into demon world and then returning them back to Earth when the first tournament ended. He had to abandon that job when Makuro called him back after finding out Enki was killed.

"Raizen's heir is getting closer. And there's an ugly young man with him as well. I've never met him before. I don't believe he took part in the first tournament." Makuro spoke with curiosity.

"He's a human fool. He participated in the Dark Tournament with us, losing practically every match he fought. Though he did fight with a warrior's spirit. I didn't care for him when we first met, but now I've come to accept his idiocy." Hiei spoke snidely.

"So you have friends now? I've never heard you refer to anyone, especially a human, as a friend. Are you getting soft?" Makuro asked sarcastically but Hiei wasn't very good with detecting it.

"I pursue only strength and I do not rely on anyone but myself! You should really watch what you say, you odd mummy. I've done nothing but train for the last three years when I haven't been helping humans find their way home!" Hiei barked.

Makuro laughed to herself. Hiei put on a great front but Makuro knew the truth. She knew he cared for both Yusuke and Kuwabara regardless of what he said and would gladly die for them in battle. Hiei would never admit to it though. Hiei stood less than five feet tall. But it was his speed that struck fear into any demon that tried to fight him. He was a master swordsman and could cut an enemy sixteen times before the victim ever had a chance to blink. He had a third eye, called the Jagan, implanted in his forehead. Originally it was to find his twin sister whom he learned about when he returned to the ice world where he was born, though he was a fire demon due to his mother having mated with a male. The ice apparitions became pregnant asexually when they were of age. Hiei was reluctantly thrown from a cliff by his mother's best friend when he was a baby because he was looked at as a cursed child.

Clouds began to gather in the distance. A storm was coming and Makuro needed to find out why she hadn't heard anything from Yomi in the ten days that had passed since Enki's murder. What was he up to and what was he planning. His next move was very key. The law called for a new tournament to be held. But Makuro knew Yomi had the advantage. He had the larger army and his son, Shura, had grown into a powerful fighter. Shura now stood almost six feet tall despite only being twelve human years old. He could also level a wall with his index finger. If Yomi wished, he and Shura could easily have expanded to Yusuke's territory. With Yusuke gone on Earth, only Hiokushin had comparable power to Yusuke.

"So, what is the plan Makuro? Why have we not begun mobilization of the army? If we don't start soon we may not have time if Yomi chooses to attack. The only way to remain the strongest is to catch the enemy off guard and strike while we can!" Hiei spoke with forceful concern.

Hiei was eager to return to battle. He didn't enjoy no longer having to watch his back. He was feeling as if his power was slipping. He wasn't the cold blooded killer that fought Yusuke as a fledgling spirit detective. He was becoming uncomfortable in his own skin.

"We will not make any immediate decision at this time. We will not mobilize. We don't want to risk putting Yomi on alert when there's no reason for him to be concerned. We are no longer at war and we have a civilized way of determining who will rule this world." Makuro shot back.

"You can't be serious! It doesn't matter. You're the leader. I'm just a grunt and what I think does not matter." Hiei spoke under his breath.

"After all this time is that really what you believe. You have some personal things to work out. Go head off your friends and escort them here. There's no reason to expect them to get here safely if they're alone. Yusuke is recovering from his fight with The Giant and his friend is also recovering from fighting the children. If they don't get here soon, they may as well stand still for the apparitions hoping to feast on them at nightfall." Makuro stared at Hiei in expectation.

"Very well. I will leave now." Hiei hissed.

Hiei leapt from the roof of the palace and landed a mile away. He began his trek toward Yusuke and Kuwabara, hoping he'd be able to get to them before nightfall. They had no idea what happened at night in the demon world and nothing in existence could prepare them for it. They would be served on a platter if he didn't hurry.

As Hiei raced toward his friends, he wondered what Kurama was thinking of the whole situation. They hadn't spoken for almost three years. Kurama had returned to Earth to be with his new family and had begun a military career, quickly gaining the rank of general due to his abilities as a master strategist and tactician.

**_At Yomi's palace..._**

Kurama entered Yomi's chambers silently. He paced toward Yomi slowly, as to not alert the blind demon king. As Kurama stood beside him, Yomi turned toward him, having been expecting him for several hours.

Yomi was a tall demon with multiple ears and no sight. He gained incredible hearing abilities after the loss of his sight. He could hear what could be said miles away. Nobody knew the limitations of his hearing. It seemed as if he could hear everything going on in the world, and it was true.

"Hello, Kurama. How have things been on Earth these long three years? I expect you're well." Yomi began.

Kurama closed his eyes before he spoke. He began to shake with anger. He wanted to find out what had caused this nightmare. He was ready to start investigating and not in the mood for Yomi's games.

"I've been well. What is the next move, given what we know?" Kurama asked harshly.

"Straight to business as always. Makuro has sent Hiei to escort your friends to Makuro's palace before nightfall. Enki's friends are on their way here to attend the next tournament, as the law calls for. But I don't believe the law should still stand if the one that put it in place is no longer alive." Yomi turned toward Kurama in anticipation of his answer.

Kurama gathered his thoughts. He was not surprised at Yomi's intentions. In a way, this was a day Yomi had been waiting for. Control had slipped away from him because of Raizen's death. But he had a hard grip on it now. He had the upper hand and he knew Makuro could sense it.

"So we mobilize. Gather the armies and prepare to attack Makuro as she is located closer to Yusuke than we are. What would you have me do if this were your course of action? I cannot guarantee my loyalty if you plan to break the law and attack Makuro and Yusuke." Kurama growled.

"Of course Kurama. I understand that your loyalty cannot truly be to me. Yusuke and Hiei have saved your life many times, and you have saved theirs. But I cannot guarantee your safety when the armies begin to move. You will be on your own and if you were lying on the ground on the brink of death, I would not hesitate to put you out of your misery. Just keep that in mind when the time for your decision comes." Yomi spoke in a cocky tone. He knew what he was doing.

Kurama turned to walk away. Before he left the room he turned back to Yomi.

"Yomi, we were friends in another life. There can only be bad blood between us at this point. Believe me when I say I will strike you down without a second thought if the prosperity of our world came down to a fight between you and I." Kurama warned.

Yomi laughed under his breath as Kurama left the room. Kurama was going to try to meet up with Yusuke and Hiei before it got dark and they'd all retreat to Makuro's territory until morning. Kurama began running into the distance as Yomi watched from the window of his palace. This is how the end would begin. And it was all going according to Yomi's plan.

**Hope you like it. Two chapters in a week, I'm sure, is a gift considering how busy all the writers on this site might be. Thank you again to those that have my story on their favorites list. Leave reviews. I'm lost without them. Thanks again.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**Last chapter:** **Yomi laughed under his breath as Kurama left the room. Kurama was going to try to meet up with Yusuke and Hiei before it got dark and they'd all retreat to Makuro's territory until morning. Kurama began running into the distance as Yomi watched from the window of his palace. This is how the end would begin. And it was all going according to Yomi's plan.**

"What's that running toward us? I hope it's not another one of those monsters again." Kuwabara muttered.

"I'm not sure. I can't tell from this distance. It's about two hundred yards away. At this point it's just a tiny dot. We'd better prepare anyway. I hope you have some more tricks. My power is returning faster than before, but something feels odd. You'd better be ready if something were to happen to me in the time this thing reaches us." Yusuke spoke seriously. There was a worried tone in his voice.

Yusuke and Kuwabara had begun to slow their approach to the figure in the distance, just in case. Kuwabara's sword formed in his right hand. His left hand, clenched into a fist, began to glow. He was ready to slice up whatever it was coming at them with long distance and close range attacks.

Yusuke focused his energy into his clenched right fist. Something was odd. It didn't feel the same. The warmth caused by gathering spirit energy wasn't as noticeable as it had been before.

The figure was getting closer, less than a hundred yards away. Yusuke and Kuwabara's fists began to glow even more and their auras flared up in anticipation of an attack. They began their advance toward the figure. They were eighty yards away, fifty, twenty yards.

"SHOTGUN" Yusuke yelled.

"What the hell are you doing, detective?" Hiei screamed as he dodged and knocked away the energy bullets with his sword. Hiei approached Yusuke with the business end of his sword toward his own body, and the hilt pushing down Yusuke's hand, as if to signal that he had permission to stop freaking out.

"Hiei! What's going on? We thought you were another monster coming at us." Yusuke said excitedly.

"Hey shorty, long time no see. How's the weather down there half pint" Kuwabara joked.

"Shut up, fool. I'm not here for games. We have a serious problem developing and we must return to Makuro's territory before the sun sets any further." Hiei barked.

"Why? What's going to happen when the sun goes down?" Yusuke asked.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of the dark. Why don't you just light yourself on fire so we'll be able to see?" Kuwabara still joking noticed the seriousness in Hiei's glare.

"You humans will never be cutthroat enough to survive this world at night. We need to move and we need to do it quickly. Yusuke, I need you to shoot a spirit gun in the direction I came from. The sun is already setting and it's not like Earth. Right when our sun starts to set, demons are born out of the shadows produced by it. I'm sure I don't have to tell you, killing shadows is going to be impossible. They will devour us where we stand if we don't move now. Do it now while we still have a chance." Hiei seethed.

Yusuke stared at his right index finger and began to shake. Sweat started dripping from his forehead and he let out a panicked gasp.

"What are you waiting for, detective? Do it now!" Hiei yelled.

"Urameshi, you better do what he says. The only time I get scared is when Hiei is more serious than his normal self. What's the problem?" Kuwabara asked worriedly.

"I'm not sure what's going on. I don't know if it's spirit energy fatigue from that monster, or the fact that we haven't eaten since we got here. I feel weak in both cases either way. What should we do?" Yusuke asked.

Hiei sneered and stared at the ground. He didn't know what to do at this point. Kuwabara was a weakling compared to Yusuke and he would never be able to produce the type of illumination needed to light their way. He was at a loss, and that coupled with his inhibitions about who he'd become in three years was not making it easier to solve the problem.

"I'll do it. It may not be a spirit gun, but my sword still produces some light. I won't be able to hold it as long as Yusuke would a spirit gun, but I'll do the best I can. Hiei, you'll need to be on your guard. If you're right about what happens here at night, then you'll be the only defense. You guys ready?"

"Fine. Just stay behind me and don't try to help. You have your job Kuwabara and Yusuke will only be useful as a lookout." Hiei was unsure what their fate would be. But he was ready for some action. Years of performing his duty escorting humans back to Earth was tiring due to the boring nature of it. He was ready to draw blood from whatever came their way.

Hiei's Jagan opened and his black and purple aura surrounded his body. It had grown larger since the last time Yusuke and Kuwabara had seen him fight. He definitely hadn't been taking it easy the last three years.

Kuwabara launched his spirit sword in the direction they'd be running. They started running toward Makuro's territory. The sun was setting faster and they could hear cackles echoing through the dark. Hiei's aura flared up even larger in anticipation of a battle. Within half an hour they'd covered a lot of ground but still had some time to go before they made it to the safety of Makuro's territory. The cackles grew louder and more numerous. They seemed to multiply many fold as they got closer to Makuro's territory. Suddenly, Yusuke fell to his knees.

"Urameshi!" Kuwabara yelled.

"Yusuke what are you doing. We can't carry you and Kuwabara is getting weaker. We don't have much further to go." Hiei growled in disbelief.

Silence. Yusuke stayed on his knees and slowly raised his head so he could see Kuwabara and Hiei. They could see a small figure on his shoulder, and it was holding a knife-like arm to his throat. One of the shadow creatures had latched onto him as they were running and forced him into submission.

"Yusuke, don't make any sudden movements." Hiei warned.

"Hold still Urameshi, I'm going to get it off of you. When I tell you to move, get the hell out of the way." Kuwabara directed.

Yusuke could see the creature out of the corner of his eye. In an attempt to intimidate the creature, Yusuke moved his index finger toward it and a faint blue light shone at the end of it. The creatures face grew nervous but he only pulled the knife closer to Yusuke's throat.

The light dimmed from Kuwabara's sword. He'd run out of energy already, roughly fifty miles from Makuro's territory. The darkness fell like a shroud blinding all three of them.

A scream was heard.

**I'm going to be honest and say I'm very proud of the way this chapter ended. I'm excited to come up with the result of this mystery scream in the next chapter. Leave me reviews, please! There are at least ten of you that put me on your favorite author/story list. Thank you, but I'd really like some critique. You are writing this story as much as I am if you write a review. Thanks in advance.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**Thanks for the latest reviews. This chapter is going to be very long so bear with me. I'm going to pull everything together and hopefully we'll finally start the tournament at some point in the next two chapters. I'm sure you've noticed at this point that I've named some old attacks and created or will be creating new attacks and abilities for the main characters. This was something that I really wanted to do as the series showed some of these attacks but never did again so I wanted to bring them back and give them more of a center stage. A new ability, moreso, than an attack is coming in this chapter. Who will it come from? Read on to find out!**

**Last chapter: The light dimmed from Kuwabara's sword. He'd run out of energy already, roughly fifty miles from Makuro's territory. The darkness fell like a shroud blinding all three of them.**

**A scream was heard.**

The scream echoed through the area and Hiei and Kuwabara being unable to see weren't sure if it was Yusuke or the shadow creature. Out of nowhere, they heard an attack cry:

"Rosewhip, lash!" It was Kurama.

They heard more screams echo through the area as Kurama's rosewhip dispersed the creatures that had been gathering around them in the blanket of the darkness. They all sighed in relief as the ground lit up from Kurama's lamp weeds. The last time he'd used them was when they were on their way to fight Sensui. Because of the labyrinth-like cave system Sensui was hiding in, Kurama left a trail for them to find a way back after they'd succeeded using his lamp weeds. They were plants that grew from seeds he sewed into the ground and sprouted a flower that produced light.

"Kurama!" all three yelled excitedly.

"Are you all ok?" Kurama asked.

"That little bastard gave me a shallow cut on my cheek when he latched onto me, but I think I'll be alright." Yusuke joked.

"I wasn't sure if you had even arrived in demon world yet. What took you so long?" Hiei asked with a smirk on his face.

"I do apologize for my late arrival. Though I'm sure we can discuss this later. Right now we have more shadows forming and moving closer. Hold on one moment. I'll light the way."

Kurama spoke softly and took a deep breath. He let out a roar.

"Lampweed forest, erect!" He yelled.

The others looked on in amazement as seeds sprouted from Kurama's hands and landed miles away and continued landing all the way up to where they were standing. Kurama hadn't been sipping margaritas for three years either. Yusuke felt lame. He hadn't been training as much as everyone else. But he still had a few new things to show off.

"That's incredible Kurama. Have you always been able to do that?" He asked.

"This is something new I've developed. If you remember, I was given that potion that allowed me to become Yoko. As I used the potion more, Yoko's power became more internalized and a transformation became less and less necessary. I was able to synthesize a compound that worked to greater effect than the original potion. I am now one man. No longer Yoko, Kurama, and Shuichi Minamino. I am finally one mind in one body. This ability is only one of the many things I can now do with my new powers." Kurama spoke humbly. He wasn't trying to brag. He'd never been able to show off these new powers until now. He was ready for the tournament.

"Now let us make haste. We're not far from Makuro's territory and it's only going to continue getting darker. Hiei and I will lead the way while you, Kuwabara, tend to Yusuke. He looks fatigued. We will have Makuro's medical staff take a look when we get there.' Kurama ordered.

They began running. The shadows came to life once more. They had been lying dormant until their prey began to run again. Kurama sliced away shadow after shadow with his Rosewhip as did Hiei with his sword. Hiei was growing tired of the child's play. He took the remaining army coming at them, literally, into his own hands.

"DRAGON…OF…THE DARKNESS…FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAME" Hiei roared.

Hiei's jagan opened and his hand formed a black fire in the palm. He thrust his open hand forward and the dragon was unleashed. It roared as it flew through the emptiness and devoured all of the shadow creatures around them. Screams echoed for what seemed like an eternity as they continued their trek to Makuro's territory. They finally made it to the front gate and leaped over the wall as the shadows came to a halt once they hit the front gate. The cackling began to fade as the shadow creatures gave up their pursuit and disappeared back into the darkness.

They all fell to their knees to catch their breath. Clapping could be heard a few feet above them. Makuro stood in awe at the shock of their successful return. Makuro knew this next tournament would not be as easy as the last one. Hiei was now a formidable opponent. Kuwabara was a new, unknown challenger. Yusuke and Kurama both had newly developed abilities that were never seen before. Makuro became more interested than ever to fight them. She couldn't help but be exhilarated at the prospect of being beaten by any one of the four of them. There was still the question of Enki and his death. In Makuro's mind that would have to take a backseat to the tournament. The tournament was the task at hand that must be given full attention.

They all stood in a circle bouncing ideas off one another. They tried to form a concrete plan of action but there were too many undefined variables. What was Yomi planning? How would Shura be involved in what Yomi was planning? How were things going in Yusuke's territory? Was Hokushin able to defend the territory himself with assistance from the other monks? Too many questions were brought up. Yusuke had a look of annoyance on his face. He finally got fed up:

"Alright! Everybody shut the hell up and listen to me for a second." Yusuke yelled. He was able to get everyone's attention. As he began to speak, Makuro's medical staff had arrived to diagnose his fatigue. He shook them off.

"Get the hell away from me. I'm fine. I don't need a doctor. I need a magnifying glass so I can start playing detective and figure out how this whole mess started." Yusuke spoke sternly.

"The tournament is on the horizon. There is no time to investigate right now. Preparation for the tournament must take precedence." Makuro advised. She did not understand the urgency to find Enki's killer. All that mattered to her was that he was dead, a new tournament was about to be fought, and to control the demon world was her only goal.

"Don't you want to know why he was killed? How? Where the hell his body is? Nobody thought to maybe look into answering a few of these questions? His death is definitely coincidental considering the next tournament wasn't far away anyways. But why kill him now? Why kill him at all? What kind of threat did he pose? He only won the last tournament because I beat the hell out of Yomi during our fight and he hadn't recovered in time to fight Enki." Yusuke explained. He clearly hadn't put Enki's death in the back of his mind. He'd been actively trying to figure out what the purpose was behind Enki's death. He started to walk away from the group. Hiei grabbed his arm.

"What will solving his death do for us? He clearly wasn't able to handle whatever came at him. If you can't survive, then you don't deserve to. That's just the way it is down here. I understand that he was a friend of your father's and you feel some sort of obligation to find out what happened to him as a favor to your father. It's going to be a long tournament. Survival is going to be very important this time. Laws will be changed and repealed, while new laws will be enacted. Enki pissed off a lot of apparitions with his one mandate to keep demons out of the human world. I can guarantee you if we don't focus on becoming as strong as possible there will be a maniac in control of our world and Koenma will be very busy trying to prepare for the inevitable mess." Hiei spoke in a soft, almost desperate tone. Convincing Yusuke to put off Enki's death was not going to be easy.

"This is a bunch of bull crap! You try to pull the whole 'strength is everything' speech at every opportunity. But you do have a point. If we don't live, Enki's death will never be solved. So what do you suggest we do? How do we get stronger in such a short amount of time?" Yusuke asked in a sarcastic tone.

"It's simple. We push our bodies to the point where we feel like we're going to die." Kuwabara spoke up.

"Glad to see you're still involved in the conversation." Yusuke said.

"I wasn't in the last tournament but you can be sure I'm no wimp. I'm not going to lose almost every fight like I did in the Dark Tournament. I'm a lot stronger than I was back then."

"But you're still wrapped in a veil of stupidity." Hiei scoffed.

"Forget you shorty! I swear you're going to be first on the list when this whole thing is over. I'm so tired of you and your insults!" Kuwabara exclaimed.

"Please please, children. Calm down. There will be plenty of time to bicker when this whole thing is over. Right now it would be good for everyone if we stayed on the same side." Yusuke stood in between Kuwabara and Hiei to break them up. He knew Kuwabara had gotten stronger, but Hiei made him nervous. There was something unusual about the way he'd been acting since they met up in the plains. Hiei was colder, almost reminiscent of when Yusuke fought him as a fugitive.

"The tournament is in two weeks. If we are going to make the most of the time we have, I suggest we relocate somewhere we can't be interrupted." Kurama insisted.

"I've got the perfect arena which Hiei will be most familiar with. It's the same place you fought Shigure to prove how strong you'd become before the last tournament. I'm sure you remember." Makuro noted.

Hiei seethed with annoyance.

"Yes, I remember. I really should be thanking you. I wouldn't be where I am today without the training you put me through."

"Follow me. Your training room is in my castle." Makuro instructed.

The four of them followed Makuro to the bowels of the castle. They entered a cold room. It used to be the dungeon. Chains remained from the old prisoners strewn about the floor. Once all of them were in the room, Makuro spoke.

"This area is larger than you think. You may train in any way you like for as long as you like, though there is a catch. Down here, you will face more than each other. You must face yourselves. The longer you spend down here, the more mentally taxing it will become. If you'd like to eat and drink prior to beginning, please follow me." Makuro's eyes widened. Despite being exhausted and not knowing the status of his spirit energy, Yusuke had already descended deeper into the room. Kuwabara followed with Hiei and Kurama. These men were far more determined than Makuro realized. She'd have to go to great lengths to be able to stand toe to toe with them. She was ready to fight.

_**In Yomi's Territory**_

"So Shura, how are things going training the army?" Yomi asked.

"They're all a bunch of idiots, Father. A bunch of weaklings on the front lines, a few captains, and myself are not going to be enough to go through with your plan. We need more men. We need more powerful men. Nothing about the resources we have in front of us allows me to believe we will be successful!" Shura spoke both annoyed and concerned.

"Patience, Shura. The plan is coming together. Even if our army isn't strong enough to survive. They will serve their purpose." Yomi smirked as he spoke. He knew Yusuke and the others were training. They would most likely grow more powerful than himself. Yomi wasn't worried though. Regardless of who showed up for this tournament, or what the outcome was, he would continue to stay in control.

**Hope you enjoyed it. Sorry it took so long and that the chapter was so long. Leave more reviews. Thanks for the support.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**Sorry there's been such a large gap between this and the last chapter. I moved 3000 miles two weeks ago from D.C. to Seattle and have been spending entire days exploring the area and applying to jobs. No guarantees on the next update but this chapter should hold you over.**

**Last Chapter: Yomi smirked as he spoke. He knew Yusuke and the others were training. They would most likely grow more powerful than himself. Yomi wasn't worried though. Regardless of who showed up for this tournament, or what the outcome was, he would continue to stay in control.**

Ten days had passed since the four warriors entered the dungeon to train for the tournament. They had experienced moments of pain, despair, and exhaustion that no normal living thing could have endured. They were truly four of the most resilient beings in existence.

_**Thirty-six hours before the tournament**_

"Watch out behind you!" Hiei yelled at Yusuke as Kuwabara lunged at him with his spirit sword. Yusuke knocked it away with his fists that were coated in spirit energy. As Kuwabara flew to the side Yusuke prepared his attack. His right index finger pointed toward Kuwabara who was still flying to the side as Yusuke hung in the air

"SPIRIT…" Yusuke's attack was cut short.

"ROSEWHIP, LASH!" Kurama's roar echoed through the dungeon and Yusuke abandoned his shot at Kuwabara to dodge the whip. The thorns skimmed his left hand as he dodged.

"AH…BASTARD!" Yusuke exclaimed as he vaulted right-handed upward.

"Fertilize this! SHOTGUN!" Yusuke's fist erupted in spirit energy bullets as the attack engulfed Kurama.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Kurama yelled in pain. When the smoke cleared he was on one knee with his hand on his shoulder and his eyes closed. As they slowly began to open, he laughed.

"Not bad Yusuke. Your recovery and counter-attacks have improved. But let me show you one of my newer attacks." Kurama continued.

Kurama formed his hands into a circle and a green sphere glowed between them. The sphere became transparent as he sent it flying in Yusuke's direction without warning.

"THORN SPHERE!" Kurama screamed as the orb engulfed Yusuke.

"So what exactly does this…" Yusuke began and was cut short when he saw the sphere sprout thorns. They grew larger until Kurama forced them to stop and approached the sphere.

"This sphere is similar to my death tree and sinning tree, but less lethal. Instead of eating you or causing you enormous pain until you die, this will simply pierce every angle of your body, similar to an iron maiden, until you beg for mercy." Kurama explained.

"You've got some serious issues, I hope you realize that." Yusuke joked.

"Yes well, to each their…" Kurama dodged upwards as a darkness dragon flew in his direction. It hit the wall behind him and shook the area wildly.

"We're not here to converse. We're here to prepare. There are only thirty-six hours left before the start of the tournament. I have been thinking, what if there is a level beyond S class. If Sensui was S class, what would a demon with sacred energy be classified as?" Hiei thought out loud.

"Koenma said you had to be pure to be able to achieve that." Kurama remarked.

"Yes, but one can also be pure evil as well as well as pure good. I have the desire to correct the world around me, as Koenma pointed out was necessary. I hate the world around me and have the desire to alter it. I'M NOT GOING TO LOSE THIS TOURNAMENT!" Hiei grew more agitated. His Jagan opened and his skin turned black. The white area of his Jagan grew darker, matching the tone of his skin. A black aura rose around him with a gold hue. He had achieved in less than two weeks what should've taken forty years. He'd reached a new plateau of power.

The walls around them began to crumble and the ceiling was cracking. He was going to end up crushing everyone if he didn't calm down.

"Hiei take control of your emotions. Your power has risen exponentially and you are going to bring down this entire castle on top of us!" Kurama yelled.

"WHY DOES IT MATTER?! NONE OF YOU HAVE TRAINED NEARLY AS HARD AS I HAVE IN THE LAST THREE YEARS OR SINCE WE ARRIVED HERE. YOU'LL NEVER BE AS POWERFUL AS I AM AT THIS RATE." Hiei scoffed.

"That's not true. I've grown stronger, even over the last three years. Slowly I have been, sure, but stronger nonetheless. Remember when we fought Sensui? I was dead and the three of you couldn't handle him. I was reborn as a demon. When I wasn't able to stop Sensui alone, Raizen took over and I transformed. I had that crazy silver hair, and all those tribal tattoos. I looked ridiculous. Well before I came back home I visited Raizen's grave. Turns out a demon can't really die." Yusuke explained.

Hiei, Kurama, and Kuwabara looked on in anticipation. Yusuke clenched his fists together and his eyes glowed white hot. His shirt began to tear under the immense pressure created by his spirit energy. He bellowed a familiar word.

"AVITUS!" Yusuke roared.

The entire area filled with a blinding light. Kurama and Kuwabara were shoved into the wall behind them from the intensity of the energy Yusuke was exerting. Even Hiei looked on in anticipation. What Yusuke was creating equaled, maybe even bested Hiei's newfound strength. Hiei was unmoved by the energy but he still struggled to hold his gaze in Yusuke's direction.

Chains began to clank against the ground. The ceiling shook furiously as parts of it began to fall to the floor. The skeletons that remained from the prisoners instantly disintegrated. The force seemed never-ending.

As the light died down, Kuwabara and Kurama rose to their feet. Hiei's eyes began to open further as it became easier to see. They all stood in awe.

**I haven't written a chapter this short in so long but I figured the update would get you excited for the next chapter which I plan to write this weekend. I have interviews every day for the rest of the week so I have to devote all my time to those for now. Hope you enjoyed it. Leave reviews and comments and thanks in advance for any and all of them.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**I guess nobody got the email about my last update. Sorry they've been so intermittent. Just now getting back into my employed routine after getting two jobs. I just finished watching Yu Yu Hakusho again and made the observation that the author never developed the relationship between Shizuru (Kuwabara's sister) and Sakyo, or Yusuke and Mr. Iwamoto (the teacher that hated him). Just found that kind of interesting. The relationships were introduced but never satisfactorily tied up. **

**Last chapter: As the light died down, Kuwabara and Kurama rose to their feet. Hiei's eyes began to open further as it became easier to see. They all stood in awe.**

Yusuke stood before them covered in his Mazoku tattoos. He had learned how to make the transformation at will.

"Urameshi, what did you do?" Kuwabara asked in confusion.

"He's been able to channel the spirit of his demon father and turn the transformation into a new ability." Kurama cut in.

"What happened to the head banger hair he had the first time?" Kuwabara still wasn't getting the point.

"I'm not fully demon anymore. You were busy studying when this change happened. I was fighting Yomi in the last tournament. He had an ability called the demon absorption wall. Shooting demon energy at him was useless. This would've been his way of winning the last tournament. But, being a half-breed, I was able to get past his wall by mixing my spirit and demon energy into my spirit gun bullets. It created a form of sacred energy. Not the same thing Sensui produced, but almost like a branch of it." Yusuke explained.

"Yusuke's tattoos disappeared as he began tapping his spirit energy again while fighting Yomi." Kurama added.

"What brought that weird change on while you were fighting?" Kuwbara inquired further.

"You jerks. Remembering my friends and all the people I'd fought for in that last year inspired the suppression of my demon energy. Apparently I'm not evil enough, despite what my teachers used to say." Yusuke laughed.

"So detective, what do you plan to do with this new ability?" Hiei seethed.

"Win." Yusuke snapped back.

"What makes you think you stand a chance in hell? When was the last time you were even in a real fight?" Hiei's aura flared as he spoke.

"Listen bitch, would you like to be my inaugural win before this tournament starts?" Yusuke was getting annoyed. Hiei's new demeanor was not something he felt he should have to tolerate.

Hiei's jagan opened and he held out his right hand upward in an open palm. A black flame engulfed his hand.

"I'm prepared to wipe out the competition before there are any rules to stop me!" Hiei cocked back his arm.

Kurama grabbed Hiei's hand and lowered it to his side. Hiei's jagan closed and he took a deep breath. Yusuke sat down cross legged, annoyed. Kuwabara stood where he'd been through the entire exchange, unsure of what was going to happen. Before anything else could be said, Makuro walked into the dungeon.

_**Koenma's office...**_

"Koenma, sir, we have a new report on Enki's death." One of Koenma's informants entered his office. Koenma was sucking his pacifier incessantly.

"Well what is it?" Koenma asked irritatedly.

"His body was found in Gandara, Yomi's territory." The ogre spoke with intensity and Koenma's eyes widened.

"And what business would he possibly have had there!" Koenma asked demandingly.

"We're not sure, sir. It seems unlikely that he would go there by his own free will. It doesn't make any sense. With Yomi being rendered just an individual, everyday demon after losing in the tournament he no longer had any ruling power." The ogre explained with his hand on his chin in deep thought.

"Something lead him there. Or maybe someone. Right now we need to focus on the next tournament. Yusuke will have to find time between fights to investigate Enki's death." Koenma began sucking his pacifier again. He was worried about what the result of the upcoming tournament. Enki was the most level headed of the demons in existence. If a demon not on our side wins this tournament, it's going to be a very long process to correct the problem." Koenma began to worry at the thought.

"We're only very close to the start of the tournament. Please Yusuke, I hope you didn't take it easy the last three years." Koenma pleaded to himself.

_**Makuro's dungeon...**_

Makuro entered the dungeon to inquire what the hell was going on. She could feel everything shaking from the upper floors of her palace. Before she could speak, she saw that Yusuke had transformed and launched an energy blast in his direction without warning.

Yusuke stuck his hand out and stopped the blast in its path. It burned out and left a cloud of smoke rising from his palm. Makuro was more interested now than she had been before they entered the dungeon. She could sense Hiei's energy had risen to exponential levels as well.

_**Yomi's territory...**_

"Father, what was that massive energy I felt coming from Makuro's territory?" Shura asked Yomi.

"It wasn't one energy Shura, it was the combined force of two of our old adversaries." Yomi cracked a smile as he spoke.

"Who could possibly create that much energy? No demon that has ever lived was that powerful." Shura stood next to his father in anticipation of his answer. He wasn't scared, he was curious.

"It seems Yusuke has mastered his transformation that we witnessed in the last tournament and Hiei is an unnatural demon. They have raised their powers higher than anything I thought could've existed. They may even have gone beyond an S class level." Yomi spoke with interest, but his scowl said otherwise.

"That's incredible. I always thought Yusuke was an idiot. I never knew he possessed the motivation and conviction to become so strong." Shura spoke excitedly.

"You will have your time Shura. Simply observe this as a new opportunity, rather than an encroaching challenge." Yomi spoke confidently.

Nobody had seen Shura or Yomi for two years after the last tournament. They had both grown stronger but Shura was only three years older and had jumped two classes from C to A class.

**The tournament is going to start I promise. The next two chapters will be really long. One will be a lot of exposition and the other will be a lot of action. If I'm able to tomorrow, I'll have the next chapter up and then there won't be another update until next Wednesday or Thursday. Thanks in advance for any reviews.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**Here's the first really long chapter. Please don't comment about the lack of action until after you've read chapter 12. I'm going to have to use this chapter to set everything up for the next one since I've been coming up with some developments that need explanation and background (for those that didn't watch the show or only watched parts). I'm going to try to be more detailed since that's the weakest part of my writing. Hope you enjoy. And remember, don't complain about the lack of action until the next chapter is up.**

**Last chapter: ****"You will have your time Shura. Simply observe this as a new opportunity, rather than an encroaching challenge." Yomi spoke confidently. ****Nobody had seen Shura or Yomi for two years after the last tournament. They had both grown stronger but Shura was only three years older and had jumped two classes from C to A class.**

_**Six hours before the tournament…**_

Yusuke and the others exited the dungeon and headed to the grand hall for a feast provided by Makuro before the start of the tournament. A tribute to fighters competing in six hours and to those that had passed. Everyone stared in amazement at the large spread. Vegetables, steak, pork, ribs, potatoes, and anything else one could imagine layered the large table. They all took their seats and began to rightfully stuff their faces after days upon days of training.

_**Three hours before the tournament…**_

Yusuke and the others had just finished their meal. There wasn't a scrap left on the table for anyone that wasn't able to partake in the festivities. Though his hunger had been satisfied, Yusuke still seemed unsettled about something as he stared into space from his chair. Kurama noticed but didn't pay any mind to it, until Yusuke finally broke his intense thoughts.

"Hey I just thought of something, did everyone get a formal invitation to come to this next tournament, or was Enki's death reported on the six o'clock news?" Yusuke asked.

"I have notified everyone within my territory of Enki's passing. I'm sure the word has spread quickly. However, I don't know…" Makuro was cut off by the communication mirror's ringing. Everyone looked around confused until Yusuke finally caught on.

"Oh, is that me? My bad." Yusuke joked. He opened the mirror to find Koenma's face pressed against his side of the call.

"I know you miss me, but there's no way you can give me a hug through this video call." Yusuke laughed.

"Yusuke…very funny. Moving on to more pressing matters. I've sent formal invitations to all of those that participated in the last tournament and progressed past the preliminaries. Raizen's friends in addition to your usual shinbi demon friends, Jin and Toya, that drunk, Chu, Rinku, Shishiwakamaru, and Suzuka have all replied yes to the invitation. Whether Raizen's friends will show up again now that Enki won't be there is a mystery." Koenma spoke sternly. As if he was trying to convey an important message between the lines.

"Yomi and Shura were also sent invitations and they've both replied yes, on one condition. Yomi requests the immediate unity of the demon world under his rule in the event that he comes out the champion. He does have one other condition. Should his son Shura win the tournament, you, Hiei, Kurama, and all of those that stand to threaten his rule will be banished from demon world forever under the penalty of death should you interfere with his plans following the tournament. I know what he plans to do but I'm counting on you to stop him and find out what happened to Enki in the process. I've come to expect too much of you at this point. But you're not a kid anymore. You understand what will happen if Yomi or Shura wins. Yomi knows he is a threat to me and I would not agree to the second condition if it were him that would gain power. But because his son is not as powerful as him, we would stand a better chance if he were to win and have you as the defense." Koenma sighed harshly. Wishing he could further control the situation but knew he did not have the capabilities or the man-power necessary.

"So, what your'e saying Koenma, is that we have two threats this time around, both of them Yomi?" Kurama inquired. His brow furrowed.

"That is correct Kurama. Regardless of which one of them wins, it will ultimately be Yomi. Yomi _is_ ruthless enough to kill his own son and take power if that were the outcome." Koenma explained and Yusuke's whole room gasped.

"Your friends should be arriving soon. You are the army Yusuke. If you can rally others to your cause, don't hesitate. You are the general and I need you to command whatever militia-type forces you can obtain." Koenma put his hand on his head and his eyes grew wide with worry.

Everyone in the hall stood in silence. Nobody knew what to say, or how to react. They all knew the potential for this situation was more than possible, but they never could've imagined it would happen. Kurama collected his thoughts and explained what their plan should be.

"We should try to find Jin and the others. Yusuke, Hiei, Kuwabara, and I will leave Makuro's palace together just in case we run into trouble. What happens if we're not at the arena in time for the bracket drawings?" Kurama had an idea of what the answer would be.

Koenma began to grumble behind his pacifier, almost as if in pain from mental anguish due to the growing tension.

"That was another part of Yomi's conditions. If anyone is late, you are automatically disqualified and unable to participate." Koenma shook angrily.

"It's as I thought. Yomi has surely built his army in the time he was away. Shura has grown far stronger than the last time and been made the general of Yomi's army. I'm not sure who the captains, those of the next highest rank in power, would be. We need some intel on their potential entrants but I'm unsure how we could do that." Kurama explained.

"All this talking is a waste of time. If we're going to find Jin and others we must leave now or there won't be any point in discussing fighting in the tournament." Hiei chimed in.

"I agree with Hiei. And I'm bored from all this talking. Let's get out of here and stretch our legs." Kuwabara spoke up behind Hiei.

"Alright let's go. Thank you for the feast Makuro. Let's hope this tournament doesn't make it our last." Yusuke nodded in appreciation.

The four ran out of the palace the way they came in and headed in the direction of the highest power they could find.

_**Two hours before the tournament…**_

They had run a good distance since they left Makuro's territory. The idea was to follow the wind or gravitate toward the smell of alcohol. Those were the two easiest things to notice. As they ran they could see a mountain range getting closer. Before they could blink, one of the mountains disappeared and a giant tornado erupted where it originally stood. They all agreed it was probably the group they were looking for and ran faster.

As they approached the mountain they found everyone they were looking for. They were training last-minute for the tournament out of reach of any sort of civilization so they wouldn't be disturbed.

In the dark tournament, Toya and Jin were a part of Team Masho, a pseudonym to hide their true identities as the shinobi of the demon world. Each shinobi is a master of an element. Jin is the master of wind, and can even use the wind to fly which was a tactic employed on Yusuke to his great advantage. Through his training with Genkai prior to the demon world tournament, he was able to obtain some control of electricity in addition to the wind. He spoke with an Irish accent that was sometimes hard to understand. He also spoke at a brisk pace with no end to his thoughts just a long jumble of words left to be interpreted to those he was speaking to. He was a small, fit demon with bushy red hair, a horn growing out of his head, and one overbite tooth sticking over his mouth when it was closed. Toya was a master of ice. His shards of winter nearly defeated Kurama in the dark tournament had it not been for his seed of the death plant allowing him to use the energy sealed in his body since the previous fight with another member of Team Masho.

Chu was a tall man with bulging muscles and an Australian accent. His odd dialect, like Jin, also left others in confusion because they just couldn't understand what he was saying sometimes. His specialty was using alcohol to bring out his maximum power. In the dark tournament he used "ogre killer," the most powerful alcohol in existence according to Chu, to best Yusuke in terms of power. Chu had a hard head to begin with, but through Genkai's training, gained strength enough to shatter a mountain with his headbutt. He and Rinku were a part of team Rokuyukai, Yusuke's team's first opponent. Rinku has a childish appearance and demeanor. He refers to fighting as "playing" and only gets serious when fighting when he brings out his yo-yos. Rinku also trained under Genkai before the demon world tournament and grew strong enough to attack with his yo-yos using his toes.

Suzuka and Shishiwakamaru were on the same team, Uraotogi, in the dark tournament. Suzuka was the owner and leader of the team under the guise of Onji, a seemingly old and frail man until Genkai revealed he was in disguse. Suzuka revealed himself as a master of disguise and a shape-shifter. He's able to change his size, appearance, and his voice to fool his enemies. His signature attack, rainbow cyclone, saw him unleash a colorful attack of multi-colored rays of energy from his hands that struck forcefully against the opponent it made contact with. Claiming that demon world law required a "beautiful" in front of his name when being mentioned, he is an arrogant, egomaniac that was easily bested by Genkai. During Genkai's training before the demon world tournament, he upgraded his original technique to the rainbow cyclones redux, a more powerful version of his original attack. Shishiwakamaru is a pretty boy, and self proclaimed star in search of fame. As he became more known he frequently attracted groupies that would sit in the audience and scream at him "kiss me Shishi," or when he Kuwabara threatened to beat him up, "don't you dare harm one hair on his beautiful head!" Given the trial sword by Suzuka, it became the banshee shriek which, coupled with his chorus of a thousand skulls technique, allowed Shishi to summon minions from the underworld to aid him in his fights. The sword fed on the souls of the audience in the stands to sustain the minions' presence in the living world. He was also bested by Genkai whom, having already given the bulk of her power to Yusuke, used her spirit reflection blast technique to defeat Shishi by stealingl and rebounding the energy of Shishi's attack back at him. Under Genkai's training, Shishi learned the chorus of ten thousand skulls technique, an upgrade to his original attack. After Yusuke and his team defeated teams Rukuyukai, Masho, Uraotogi, these six fighters became allies of Yusuke and his friends, despite being demons.

"Jin! You crazy bastard. What's going on, man?" Yusuke yelled excitedly.

"HeyUrameshilookatyouyou'reherewhooboymyearsaregoingn uts!" Jin spoke excitedly as his ears twitched in anticipation of fighting Yusuke again after losing to him in the dark tournament.

"How you bloaks doin'? I felt a might bit of energy comin' from Makuro's direction. That wouldn't ha' been you lads, now would it?" Chu had rock covering his forehead from smashing the mountain with his trademark headbutt.

"Yeah, we were training at Makuro's palace for the last ten days. I hope you've all got some new tricks because I got a brand new bag." Yusuke laughed.

"You chumps won't have anything to say once you see my new yo-yo technique. I've learned a few other things training with these dummies too." Rinku chimed in.

"Kurama. It's nice to see you again. Don't think you'll have the upper hand on me this go around like the dark tournament." Toya joked.

"I learned my lesson last time I underestimated you. I plan to be more cautious this time if we're paired up." Kurama shook Toya's hand out of respect for his friend.

Shishiwakamaru and Suzuka approached as they were all talking. Annoyed that they'd quit training to socialize.

"Hey guys this isn't summer camp! Let's get back to work." Suzuka whined.

"We will never attain our destined fame if we continue to waste time." Shishi added coldly.

"Fame is for fools. Fear is what makes your enemies remember you, right before you slit their throats." Hiei remarked.

"Iseeyouhaven'tchangedonebitHieistilladown erasalwaysthoughI'mnotsurprisedyouhaven'tchangedI'dmuchpreferitthatway." Jin chimed in jokingly.

"What you say go a few rounds before we get our fun on, eh chums?" Chu pleaded anxiously.

"Let's not get carried away. The tournament starts in an hour and a half and we gotta get to the stadium for the bracket drawings or we're screwed." Yusuke spoke seriously.

"What'dya mean disqualyfied, mate? We're the main attraction for this brawl!" Chu wasn't happy about the news.

"Yeah I agree we'll be the life of the party. But Yomi and Shura have plans if we don't show up that could make our lives a lot more difficult so we better moving." Yusuke pleaded.

"Oythat'swhatI'mtalkingaboutUrameshialwayss traighttothepointneveronetow astetimewhenthefateoftheworl dishanginginthebalancethewin dwe'lltakeusthereupupwegoandwe'llmakeintime." Jin was so excited the wind began to blow harder in their direction.

"Uh yeah, whatever he said. I think he said he's going to use the wind to carry us there, am I right?" Yusuke inquired to the whole group.

"Yeah, we've all got our new tricks and Jin's definitely got a few that would even make you worried, Yusuke." Rinku said playfully.

"Alright then, let's get the hell outta here. Up, up, and away Jin!" Yusuke yelled to Jin since he had already floated a few feet above them.

"Alrightythenherewegoholdonto yourhatsandkeepyourarmsinsid eatalltimeswhoohoo!" Jin yelled back.

The wind grew faster and stronger as a tornado formed around them. They all began to float and traveled so fast they couldn't keep their eyes open. When they finally arrived everybody was teary eyed from trying to see where they were going with the wind blowing in their face.

"Alright we made it." Yusuke yelled happily.

They heard the announcer begin the opening ceremonies to kick off the drawings.

"Ladies, gentleman, and pain aficionados everywhere, welcome to the Second Demon World Tournament!" Koto let out her trademark announcer voice soar through the stadium and the crowd cheered immensely. This stadium was bigger than the original and upgrades had been made all around. Betting was made capable directly from the audience's seats as to not miss a second of the action. The audio and video system had been upgraded to the latest Dolby surround sound system, 1080p high definition jumbo screens, replays would be instant as opposed to VHS recordings, and the home video of the tournament would be available at its conclusion with thirty hours of behind the scenes bonus material and featurettes in the double disc special edition.

"As you make your way to your seats let me explain the changes that have been made this year. There will be no preliminaries. Those that made it past the initial battle royale preliminaries in the last tournament will have their names placed in several brackets to determine the pairings. Apparently when demon kings are being offed without warning, nobody wants a piece of the action." Koto explained cheerfully despite the morbid subject.

"Well it looks like only a small handful of people are back this year. It should be a pretty competitive tournament this time around." Yusuke thought out loud.

"That means there's an even greater chance of us being paired together, detective. Don't think I'll hold back on you just because I let our last fight end in a draw. This is what I've been waiting for since Enki took control. Let the best fighter win, but just keep in mind that I am already the best fighter." Hiei spoke arrogantly, eyebrow cocked at Yusuke.

"As soon as we get this over with I'll have a doctor take a look at that pimple on your forehead. It's probably infected at this point." Yusuke teased.

"I hate you." Hiei seethed.

"Guys, they have the pairings up on the wall over there. Let's go take a look." Kuwabara reported cautiously, trying to not to make Hiei mad.

They made their way over to the boards with the recorded pairings. The first few fights were a bunch of nobodies that would be knocked out quickly. Yusuke's first opponent resulted in a large gasp from the group.

"Kuwabara, it looks like you're my first opponent. I hope everyone brought a camera so they can watch the replay. This one will be over fast, hahaha." Yusuke pointed and laughed at Kuwabara.

"Screw you Urameshi. This thing was obviously rigged so that the human wouldn't be allowed to advance. What a freakin' joke. This sucks." Kuwabara pouted.

They continued searching the list and the pairings were as follows:

Suzuka vs. Shura

Rinku vs. Jin

Shishiwakamaru vs. Toya

Kurama vs. Chu

Hiei vs. Souketsu

Natsume vs. Makuro

Yomi vs. Hokushin

**There you go, two chapters in two days. I hope the matchups have you curious what's going to happen. There are lots of surprises in the next chapter next Wednesday or Thursday if I'm not too burned out from work and visitors to my new home. Also, please let me know if the way I'm writing Jin is too unintelligible. From the way he spoke in the anime, I always imagined this was the way the voice actor's script was written. As always, thanks for the reviews in advance.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**I'm back everyone (who actually cares)! The day before Thanksgiving was absolutely nuts and I didn't feel like doing anything but sleeping during the long break. I'm very sorry it's taken this long to add a new chapter. I'm going to pull an Evel Knieval and try get to the end of this story in one fell swoop over the next few days so please continue your divine patience. Apparently some people were confused about the pairings and my last paragraph in the last chapters, so here are the pairings again with the last paragraph explained.**

**Last Chapter: "Kuwabara, it looks like you're my first opponent. I hope everyone brought a camera so they can watch the replay. This one will be over fast, hahaha." Yusuke pointed and laughed at Kuwabara.**

**"Screw you Urameshi. This thing was obviously rigged so that the human wouldn't be allowed to advance. What a freakin' joke. This sucks." Kuwabara pouted.**

**They continued searching the list and the pairings were as follows:**  
><strong>Yusuke vs. Kuwabara<strong>  
><strong>Suzuka vs. Shura<strong>  
><strong>Rinku vs. Jin<strong>  
><strong>Shishiwakamaru vs. Toya<strong>  
><strong>Kurama vs. Chu<strong>  
><strong>Hiei vs. Souketsu<strong>  
><strong>Natsume vs. Makuro<strong>  
><strong>Yomi vs. Hokushin<strong>

Everyone stood anxiously to hear the order the fights would happen. Instead of happening simultaneously like last time since there were so many entrants, each fight would be one after the other with a two hour break between each.

Koto jumped on stage with her microphone and kicked things off.

"Alright fans the first match will be Suzuka vs. Shura!" Koto said excitedly.

"To recap the last tournament, Suzuka put up quite a fight but was defeated quickly and Shura was taught a lesson in humility by his father. But enough blasts from the past let's get this thing started! Will Suzuka and Shura please approach the ring." Koto's request echoed throughout the stadium.

"It is very ugly of you to force me to fight a child. The beautiful Suzuka will be talking to the organizers about this farce!" Suzuka yelled annoyed.

"I may be younger than you, but I'm no longer a kid. I've trained in ways you can only imagine and you will wish you'd spent less time being 'beautiful' and more time being a warrior" Shura said with a shrug.

"Alright everyone it looks like the tempers are flaring let's get this thing started. And begin!" Koto commanded.

"I'll have you know I trained with one powerful old hag. She pushed me beyond limits and forced me to become far more powerful than I ever dreamed. Experience will win this fight, not power" Suzuka scoffed.

Shura took his stance and grinned.

"Are you done talking? This is a martial arts tournament, not a soapbox to spread your philosophies." Shura spoke disrespectfully and eager to fight.

Suzuka took his stance growling at Shura's arrogance. They took off. The crowd sat dazed at the flashes of light, unable to tell what was going on. Suzuka successfully connected multiple jabs to Shura's body that had him hunched over in shock at the amount of force behind them. They appeared back on the ground in a stand-off. Shura fell to his knees.

"Holy hell. It's like having boulders thrown at my ribs. Did you punch walls for the last three years?" Shura asked, aching in pain.

"Only someone as beautiful as me, the beautiful Suzuka, could've landed punches with such amazing speed and power, hahahaha." Suzuka was enjoying himself in this easy fight.

Shura climbed to his feet with a smile on his face. His eyes burned red and a yellow aura erupted around him. His voice grew deeper and he spoke maniacally.

"You better find a mirror and take one last look at your face because I'm about to rip if off! You're worthless. How could I have been matched up with a weakling like you?" Shura's voice echoed throughout the stadium. He had grown at least two feet since he recovered from Suzuka's attack. His muscles bulged from his clothes, almost ripping them.

The audience looked on in anticipation of Shura's attack as the force of his energy grew and began shaking the ground beneath the stadium.

"What the hell is going on?" Yusuke yelled.

"Who is this kid? How could he be releasing this much energy" Kuwabara exclaimed.

"Amateur. What is there to get excited about?" Hiei scoffed, unimpressed.

Then the unexpected happened. Shura began a transformation nobody could have ever imagined. His aura exploded further, causing a rolling thunder for a few thousand miles. He began to shrink back down to his original size, but all of the power he had just expelled had been re-internalized. He had become dangerous.

Suzuka looked on horror. Unable to move from the shock of the energy Shura unleashed.

"I…can't move. The pressure from his energy feels like it's holding me down!" Suzuka yelled in fear.

Shura began to laugh as he took his stance again.

"Prepare for your end, 'beautiful' Suzuka." Shura bellowed.

"Wow people Shura's size has increased exponentially. His energy output has multiplied several fold. He's almost not even the same person anymore." Koto informed the audience.

"Suzuka don't be afraid of him." Shishiwakamaru shouted.

"I…I…" Suzuka shook in fear.

"Now you end!" Shura yelled as he leaped toward Suzuka. A large fist flew toward Suzuka's face and he still couldn't move.

Shura made contact.

"aaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Suzuka screamed

There was a bright flash, blinding the onlookers from ringside and the spectator seating. When the light dissipated all that remained was a crater in the ring where Suzuka was standing.

Shura held his pose and then returned his fist to his side. The burning in his eyes faded. The violence of his aura disappeared.

The team looked on in horror at the crater where Suzuka once stood.

"Suzuka!," Shishiwakamaru yelled.

"He's gone…" Yusuke said under his breath.

"This isn't good" Hiei added.

"What is it that we've just witnessed?" Kurama asked.

"The bloke just disintegrated. How does someone get this kin'da pow'a?" Chu asked.

"He made such great strides during his training. And it still wasn't enough. What does that say for the rest of us?" Rinku chimed in.

"We'regoingtohavetomakesurewedon 'tholdbackagainstthismaniac." Jin added.

"Four years. He trained non-stop for FOUR YEARS AND HE'S GONE!" Toya exploded.

Yomi stood at ringside and grinned silently.

"Very good Shura. Make sure they know that they don't have a chance from the outset. That is a very wise opening move in this chess game. The clock is now ticking on their side. It is only a matter of time." Yomi muttered to himself.

**Hope you enjoyed that and are at least feeling shocked that one of the good guys is no more. Starting tomorrow I'm going to blitz this story and hopefully have it finished by Sunday. Leave reviews and let me know what you think.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**Clearly my aspiration to complete this story in three days didn't happen. It's been an absolute roller coaster ride since I finished the last chapter but I'm**

**back now. I will set the goal again, I want to blitz the remainder of this story and finish it by Sunday. Clearly, there are no guarantees but I will try my**

**best. The next chapter is sure to hold some interesting developments so please continue reading!**

**Last chapter:**

"**Four years. He trained non-stop for FOUR YEARS AND HE'S GONE!" Toya exploded.**

**Yomi stood at ringside and grinned silently.**

"**Very good Shura. Make sure they know that they don't have a chance from the outset. That is a very wise opening move in this chess game. The clock is now ticking on their side. It is only a matter of time." Yomi muttered to himself.**

As the team looked on in horror, Koto made the official announcement.

"Ladies and gentleman, Suzuka has disappeared from the ring for more than ten counts which means Shura is the winner!"

The demon crowd went wild with excitement, calling for more action with no delay.

Koto shuttered at the roar of the crowd and put the mic back to her mouth.

"Ladies and gentleman, as stated previously there will be an intermission between each fight since there are so few fighters this time around. Please make your way to one of our many fine snack bars and don't forget to place your bets before the next match starts!"

The crowd erupted in angry scowls and scoffs at the announcement as they left their seats to make their next bets.

"Yusuke, Suzuka is gone. We're not prepared for this!" Rinku exclaimed in fearful shame.

"I know how you feel. We're not little kids anymore and this isn't a world to take lightly. This won't be like the last time. We need to play it as smart as we

possibly can. Any mistake could put us in the same shoes…well, land us with the same fate as Suzuka." Yusuke's explained with his arms folded and his head

down. His eyes were closed as he spoke, deep in thought.

There was so much running through his mind it was difficult to process it all at once. The prospect of dying at this tournament had not even been considered.

He thought it was going to be another walk in the park like last time. Obviously that wasn't true at all. Shura hadn't been sitting on his ass for three years.

Wherever Yomi took him, it had made him into a very dangerous, very powerful and intelligent fighter.

"Don't let Suzuka's death linger on your conscience." Genkai's voice spoke in Yusuke's head.

"Grandma?" Yusuke asked to no one in particular.

"Yeah I've been here all along. You thought I finally left you alone, didn't you?" Genkai asked sarcastically.

"This isn't the time Genkai. How am I supposed to be prepared for something like this? I've trained as hard I could for this tournament. If Shura is able to expel

that much power and take out someone at Suzuka's level that quickly…I just don't know anymore." Yusuke shook, and stared at the ground.

"OH GET OVER YOURSELF YOU CRY BABY!" Genkai yelled.

"Feeling sorry for your friend won't bring him back. Use the pain of his loss to fuel your desire to fight! He wouldn't want you to wallow in pity, he'd want you to

take this to a beautiful end, do you understand me?" Genkai asked forcefully.

"The old hag is right. Mourning him won't do us any good." Hiei scoffed.

"But, what could we possibly do to make this next match count without the sacrifice of another of our friends?" Kurama asked. He'd been pretty hard by the

loss. Despite their relationship in the dark tournament, they'd grown close in the last three years.

"This outcome was unforeseen. We were under the impression that no one would be able to test us. We've all pushed ourselves past our limits to achieve

greater strength and it wasn't enough. What can counter-act the type of strength Shura has flexed in the first round?" Kurama had not shown this side of

himself often. Weakness and fear were not his normal attributes.

"We just got'a move past this unfortunate event and take ev'ryth'ng we've learned and force it down that little brat's throat!" Chu chimed in.

"We mustn't let our hearts turn cold with Suzuka's death. We must push forward." Toya whispered despite his despair.

"ALRIGHT! Enough moping around. We've got two hours to kill. Outside of fighting we've got a murder to solve, so let's get to it!" Yusuke spoke over his own

hopelessness to try to raise the spirits of his teammates.

"We should split into groups to look for clues near the area where Enki was killed and…" Kurama was interrupted by a loud beeping.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

The communication mirror blared wildly as Yusuke pulled it from his left pants pocket. Koenma was on the other side.

"Yusuke, are you there?" Koenma asked sternly.

"Yeah diaper genie, what's up? You just interrupted Kurama's great pep talk.

"I have news regarding Enki's death"

**And there's another cliffhanger! I am insanely tired tonight since I slept like hell last night. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to the next**

**one tomorrow or Thursday! You've all been skimping on the reviews which I can understand with the lack of updates. Please review anyway if you're**

**still reading!**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

**Thank you to everyone still reading. Really sorry for the delayed and sparse updates. Work has been killing me since January 2nd mentally but I'm finally able to take some time to continue writing. I wrote this chapter awhile ago, kinda buzzed and it looks logical to me so here it is.**

**Last chapter:**

**BEEEEEEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEEEEEEP!**

**The communication mirror blared wildly as Yusuke pulled it from his left pants pocket. Koenma was on the other side.**

**"Yusuke, are you there?" Koenma asked sternly.**

**"Yeah diaper genie, what's up? You just interrupted Kurama's great pep talk.**

**"I have news regarding Enki's death"**

The room stood silent in anticipation. Yusuke leaned closer to the mirror waiting for Koenma to explain what he knew. The air became cold and dense. Everyone was holding their breath.

"Enki was..." Koenma was cut off.

Static.

"Koenma? Koenma?!" Yusuke screamed at the mirror.

"Yusuke, what happened?" Kurama asked.

"He was...cut off" Yusuke muttered under his breath.

"So, detective, what does this mean?" Hiei asked annoyed.

"We find out as much as we can until Koenma can contact us again" Yusuke's head hung, still staring at the mirror, hoping Koenma would come back.

**Meanwhile, in Koenma's office...**

"Yusuke? Hello?" Koenma stared at the mirror waiting for an answer.

His office was full of ogres waiting to hand him paperwork but he'd obviously told them to wait. The line extended across the office and out the door into the hallway.

"Koenma, sir? What's going...?" George stopped when he saw the look of despair on Koenma's face.

"Koenma, sir, are you alright?" George asked

"No, Ogre, I'm not alright. I had some very important information to pass on to Yusuke regarding his mission and the signal for the communication mirrors was lost. I haven't been able to get it back." Koenma explained.

"If you can't talk to them why don't you monitor their progress from the TV, sir?" George asked.

"That's totally useless! They need to know this. It would cut down on their investigation time!" Koenma yelled.

He turned the TV on anyway. He could see that the group had split up. The group consisting of Yusuke, Kuwabara, Chu, and Toya was making its way to Raizen's gravesite, the last place Enki was seen alive and also where his body was found. He changed the channel and saw the other group, Kurama, Hiei, Shishiwakamaru, and Jin standing where they'd been before trying to determine their course of action.

**Back in demon world...Kurama's group**

"I don't give a damn what fate Enki met before this tournament. I am here to fight!" Hiei snarled.

"Don't be so ugly Hiei. You're a part of this group and the reason we're here besides the tournament is to find out what happened to Enki." Shishiwakamaru retorted sarcastically.

"That'srightthere'snopointingettingangryatuswe'rej ustheredoingwhatwe'resupposedtowhilewewaittogetbac ktothefunsodon'tbesuchastickinthemud." Jin added.

"I suggest we go back to the stadium. Maybe we'll be able to eavesdrop on Yomi and Shura to find out their plans." Kurama proposed calmly.

The group agreed and walked back into the stadium. As they entered they could see Yomi speaking to Shura at one of the lower exits. Shura's face showed a great deal of fear and Yomi seemed extremely tense. Kurama stopped the group and attempted to read Shura's lips as he was facing Kurama's direction. He could only make out small bits.

Not sure...Sorry father...what happened? I...black. He...gone...woke.

Kurama took a step back in confusion. The rest of the group took notice. Shishiwakamaru spoke first.

"What did Shura say, Kurama?" Shishi inquired.

"He...he's saying he blacked out? He's saying he doesn't know what happened." Kurama spoke confused. Was this a ploy to throw them off or was Shura actually unaware of everything that transpired?

**Back at Yusuke's group...**

Yusuke and his group searched around for clues near Raizen's gravesite. Nobody was able to find anything until...

"Is this...dried up blood?" Yusuke asked out loud to no one.

Yusuke had run his hand along the wall of Raizen's grave and found a red powdery substance on his hand when he picked it back up. It smelled like blood but he damn sure wasn't going to taste test it.

"It could be, where did you find that?" Kuwabara asked.

"Over here, by the worn down candles. Almost like it was a splatter from a lethal attack. But then, where is the rest of it?" Yusuke pondered harshly. Unsure if the killer would really make such a rookie error.

"It doesn't make sense that the killer would go about murdering Enki so gruesomely and not remember to clean up the entire site. Unfortunately, we're not a forensics team so there's no way to tell just WHO'S blood that is." Toya suggested.

"You're right. We need Kurama. We should reconvene with the other group and see what they've found out. We have to..."

BOOM!

Yusuke was interrupted by a large energy blast that impacted in front of them, probably a warning shot. The trajectory suggested it was shot from the air. They weren't sure if intimidation was the intention or they accidentally missed. They all scanned the air to find the shooter, but couldn't see anything. The smoke cloud caused by the explosion was so thick it was difficult to see past it. Jin saw two shadows disappear.

"OylookuptheretheyjustdisappearedI'mgoingtogethose punksforscaringuslikethatwhomakesaboomatsomeone'sf eet?!" Jin rambled angrily.

"Calm down, Jin." Yusuke ordered.

"If they wanted to hit us they probably could have. This was a warning to stop looking around. We're obviously on the right track." Yusuke suggested.

"So if they don't want us looking around why scare us instead of trying to take us out?" Kuwabara asked.

"We need to get back to the stadium. Kurama might be able to come up with something to explain what just happened. I hope he's doing alright. Suzuka's death seemed to hit him pretty hard. I hope he doesn't do anything stupid, but then again, it is Kurama. Stupid retaliation isn't his tihng." Yusuke spoke convincingly.

Yusuke and his group made their way back to the stadium. An hour had passed. They started looking for the other group and spotted Yomi and Shura in a corner, as Kurama's group had witnessed. They were sitting cross legged, meditating apparently.

"What are you two freaks of nature thinking?" Yusuke asked out loud.

"Talking to yourself, Yusuke?" Kurama asked as he approached with his group.

"It just pisses me off that they can sit there so calm after everything that's happened." Yusuke shook angrily.

"Well then this isn't going to improve your mood in any way. It seems Shura may be completely unaware of what transpired during his match." Kurama informed.

"What do you mean?" Yusuke asked confused.

"Yomi and Shura were in that same corner some time ago, Yomi seemed to be speaking sternly to Shura. I was able to pick out a few words while reading Shura's lips. He was apologizing to Yomi and said that he blacked out during his transformation." Kurama informed.

"So that little brat has no idea what happened to Suzuka?" Yusuke asked.

"No, he seems to be completely oblivious." Kurama confirmed.

"Son of a bitch. He kills a man that happens to be from a group composed of known enemies and he says he doesn't remember." Yusuke said angrily, forming his right hand into a fist and punching his left hand. He was anticipating the next match.

"I have something to tell you too, Kurama." Yusuke mentioned.

"Oh? Did you find something?" Kurama asked.

"Yeah. I found some dried up blood on Raizen's grave. And then someone shot an energy blast at our feet but we couldn't see who it was. They got away before the smoke cleared. We're still unsure if they meant to miss us or if they missed by accident." Yusuke added.

"An assassination attempt? During a tournament of this magnitude? Something is very off." Kurama lamented.

**Sorry for the long wait. I wrote this chapter awhile ago. I never intended this to drag out for so long. Hopefully you're still reading and thank you in advance for the reviews.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**I am absolutely terrible at finishing things. Thank you if you're still with me. I'm really really going to finish this story soon lol. I promise. Life tends to choose to kick your ass when you have the least amount of time to deal with it. As a reminder here are the remaining matches:**

**Suzuka vs. Shura**** Winner: Shura**

**Rinku vs. Jin**

**Shishiwakamaru vs. Toya**

**Kurama vs. Chu**

**Hiei vs. Souketsu**

**Natsume vs. Makuro**

**Yomi vs. Hokushin**

**Last Chapter: "Son of a bitch. He kills a man that happens to be from a group composed of known enemies and he says he doesn't remember." Yusuke said angrily, forming his right hand into a fist and punching his left hand. He was anticipating the next match.**

"**I have something to tell you too, Kurama." Yusuke mentioned.**

"**Oh? Did you find something?" Kurama asked.**

"**Yeah. I found some dried up blood on Raizen's grave. And then someone shot an energy blast at our feet but we couldn't see who it was. They got away before the smoke cleared. We're still unsure if they meant to miss us or if they missed by accident." Yusuke added.**

"**An assassination attempt? During a tournament of this magnitude? Something is very off." Kurama lamented.**

The team stood in frustration and confusion, so unsure of their next move it began to eat at them. Watching Shura and Yomi calmly sit in silence waiting for the next round to start was maddening. Finally, the silence was broken.

"Screw this waiting around crap. I'm going for a walk. Any and all of you are welcome to..." Yusuke was interrupted.

"May we have your attention please." A female voice sounded over the speaker system.

"It has been determined that prolonging the remaining fights is uneconomical and, therefore, fights will commence in succession until a winner has been decided. No breaks between fights will be greanted. The only time there will be to rest is before the final match." The voice decreed.

"What is this, the Dark Tournament? There's no tournament committee down here!" Yusuke yelled.

"I'm sorry Yusuke, I thought you were told..." Kurama shyly exclaimed.

"What do you mean? Told what?" Yusuke questioned.

"Talk of a committee to be formed for this tournament had been discussed for years but I'd never thought it would happen. Appointments weren't made until just before the news of Enki's death." Kurama explained sternly, almost as if it was a warning to Yusuke.

"So who exactly makes up this committee? The people in the last committee were killed off one by one by Toguro." Yusuke recalled.

"That's the thing Yusuke, we don't know the members of this committee. To avoid the kind of anarchy resulting from the slaughtering of the previous one, their identities have been kept secret. We don't know if they're demon or human. I am unsure if Koenma was aware these developments were taking place." Kurama was caught off guard by Yusuke's ignorance of the matter. Surely Koenma knew this had happened before going to Yusuke for this mission.

"Kurama, why weren't Makuro or myself made aware of this?' Hiei hissed in his feeling of betrayal.

"I am very sorry Hiei. Yomi mentioned it to me when I met with him before joining up with you and the rest of our friends. He seemed to be very amused by the idea..." Kurama spoke softly.

_**Flash back, At Yomi's Palace...**_

"Yomi, we were friends in another life. There can only be bad blood between us at this point. Believe me when I say I will strike you down without a second thought if the prosperity of our world came down to a fight between you and I." Kurama warned.

"Please know that I do understand your frustration, Kurama. The committee shall see that things move smoothly during this tournament." Yomi remarked snidely, anticipating the shock in Kurama's voice.

"What exactly do you mean, 'committee?' What have you done to taint the efforts poured into this tournament to ensure its integrity and, therefore, the fairest outcome, Yomi?" Kurama growled.

"It's not what I've done. This was bound to happen. A tournament or contest of any kind cannot proceed without a governing body. There was so much confusion and distraction during the last tournament because it was put together in such an inconcise way. Now, we have a group that can assure all participants of no such thing happening this time around." Yomi paused.

Kurama continued out the door balling his hands into fists and clenching his teeth in anger.


End file.
